Designing optimal global supply chains at Dow AgroSciences

The design of the underlying supply chain network can have a tremendous impact on the profitability, manageability, and level of risk of a global supply chain. Taxes, duties, and tariffs vary from country to country as well as trading bloc to trading bloc and can consume as much as 10% of the revenues of certain products. In the highly regulated business environment of agricultural chemicals, the country of origin of an active ingredient can determine where the final product can be marketed and the amount of taxes and duties applied to the product, making it necessary to trace all batches of product through many layers of the supply chain to their sources. This article presents a mixed integer linear programming model in use at Dow AgroSciences LLC that simultaneously optimizes the network design underlying global supply chains and the monthly production and shipping schedules for maximum profitability. This work contributes to the supply chain design literature by demonstrating a novel method of tracing products to their source for inventory valuation, taxation, and duty computation in a production environment where the products change into other products as they pass through nodes in the network. It also demonstrates an iterative scheme for determining unit fixed costs for fixed cost allocation for the same purposes. Finally, it provides a case study of a supply chain design initiative in a global enterprise.     

Combinatorial Groupoids,Cubical Complexes,and the Lovász Conjecture

This paper lays the foundation for a theory of combinatorial groupoids that allows us to use concepts like “holonomy”, “parallel transport”, “bundles”, “combinatorial curvature”, etc. in the context of simplicial (polyhedral) complexes, posets, graphs, polytopes and other combinatorial objects. We introduce a new, holonomy-type invariant for cubical complexes, leading to a combinatorial “Theorema Egregium” for cubical complexes that are non-embeddable into cubical lattices. Parallel transport of Hom-complexes and maps is used as a tool to extend Babson–Kozlov–Lovász graph coloring results to more general statements about nondegenerate maps (colorings) of simplicial complexes and graphs. The author was supported by grants 144014 and 144026 of the Serbian Ministry of Science and Technology.     

Symmetric functions,codes of partitions and the KP hierarchy

We consider an operator of Bernstein for symmetric functions and give an explicit formula for its action on an arbitrary Schur function. This formula is given in a remarkably simple form when written in terms of some notation based on the code of a partition. As an application, we give a new and very simple proof of a classical result for the KP hierarchy, which involves the Plücker relations for Schur function coefficients in a τ-function for the hierarchy. This proof is especially compact because we are able to restate the Plücker relations in a form that is symmetrical in terms of partition code notation.     

On the Wave Equation Associated to the Hermite and the Twisted Laplacian

The dispersive properties of the wave equation u _tt +Au=0 are considered, where A is either the Hermite operator −Δ+|x|² or the twisted Laplacian −(∇ _x −iy)²/2−(∇ _y +ix)²/2. In both cases we prove optimal L ¹−L ^∞ dispersive estimates. More generally, we give some partial results concerning the flows exp (itL ^ν ) associated to fractional powers of the twisted Laplacian for 0<ν<1.     

Symmetries,Lagrangian and Conservation Laws for the Maxwell Equations

The evolution equations of Maxwell’s equations has a Lagrangian written in terms of the electric E and magnetic H fields, but admit neither Lorentz nor conformal transformations. The additional equations ∇⋅E=0, ∇⋅H=0 guarantee the Lorentz and conformal invariance, but the resulting system is overdetermined, and hence does not have a Lagrangian. The aim of the present paper is to attain a harmony between these two contradictory properties and provide a correspondence between symmetries and conservation laws using the Lagrangian for the evolutionary part of Maxwell’s equations.     

Vector Interpretation of the Matrix Orthogonality on the Real Line

In this paper we study sequences of vector orthogonal polynomials. The vector orthogonality presented here provides a reinterpretation of what is known in the literature as matrix orthogonality. These systems of orthogonal polynomials satisfy three-term recurrence relations with matrix coefficients that do not obey to any type of symmetry. In this sense the vectorial reinterpretation allows us to study a non-symmetric case of the matrix orthogonality. We also prove that our systems of polynomials are indeed orthonormal with respect to a complex measure of orthogonality. Approximation problems of Hermite-Padé type are also discussed. Finally, a Markov’s type theorem is presented.     

Control the Fibre Orientation Distribution at the Outlet of Contraction

A two dimensional model of the orientation distribution of fibres in a paper machine headbox is studied. The goal is to control the fibre orientation distribution at the outlet of contraction by changing its shape. The mathematical formulation leads to an optimization problem with control in coefficients of a linear convection-diffusion equation as the state problem. Then, the problem is expressed as an optimal control problem governed by variational forms. By using an embedding method, the class of admissible shapes is replaced by a class of positive Radon measures. The optimization problem in measure space is then approximated by a linear programming problem. The optimal measure representing optimal shape is approximated by the solution of this linear programming problem. In this paper, we have shown that the embedding method (embedding the admissible set into a subset of measures), successfully can be applied to shape variation design to a one dimensional headbox. The usefulness of this idea is that the method is not iterative and it does not need any initial guess of the solution.      

The Poincaré series of divisorial valuations in the plane defines the topology of the set of divisors

With a plane curve singularity one associates a multi-index filtration on the ring of germs of functions of two variables defined by the orders of a function on irreducible components of the curve. The Poincaré series of this filtration turns out to coincide with the Alexander polynomial of the curve germ. For a finite set of divisorial valuations on the ring corresponding to some components of the exceptional divisor of a modification of the plane, in a previous paper there was obtained a formula for the Poincaré series of the corresponding multi-index filtration similar to the one associated with plane germs. Here we show that the Poincaré series of a set of divisorial valuations on the ring of germs of functions of two variables defines “the topology of the set of the divisors” in the sense that it defines the minimal resolution of this set up to combinatorial equivalence. For the plane curve singularity case, we also give a somewhat simpler proof of the statement by Yamamoto which shows that the Alexander polynomial is equivalent to the embedded topology.     

Poisson convergence,in large deviations,for the superposition of independent point processes

For a small buffer queueing system fed by many flows of a large class of traffic processes we show the single server queue and associated sample paths behave as if fed by marked Poisson traffic in a large deviations limit. The timescale of events of interest tends to zero, so we study the log moment generating function as time tends to zero. The associated rate function depends only on the mean arrival rate and the moment generating function of the arrivals. These results are useful in estimating drop probabilities while studying the effect of small buffers on communication protocols. Research supported by EPSRC Grant GR/S86266/01.     

A presentation for the singular part of the full transformation semigroup

The (full) transformation semigroup T_n\mathcal{T}_{n} is the semigroup of all functions from the finite set {1,…,n} to itself, under the operation of composition. The symmetric group S_n í T_n{\mathcal{S}_{n}\subseteq \mathcal{T}_{n}} is the group of all permutations on {1,…,n} and is the group of units of T_n\mathcal{T}_{n}. The complement T_n\S_n\mathcal{T}_{n}\setminus \mathcal{S}_{n} is a subsemigroup (indeed an ideal) of T_n\mathcal{T}_{n}. In this article we give a presentation, in terms of generators and relations, for T_n\S_n\mathcal{T}_{n}\setminus \mathcal{S}_{n}, the so-called singular part of T_n\mathcal{T}_{n}.     

Remarks on the Gagliardo-Nirenberg Type Inequality in the Besov and the Triebel-Lizorkin Spaces in the Limiting Case

We consider the generalized Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality in $\Bbb{R}^{n}$ including homogeneous Besov space $\dot{B}^{s}_{r,\rho}(\Bbb{R}^{n})$ with the critical order s=n/r, which describes the continuous embedding such as $L^{p}(\Bbb{R}^{n})\cap\dot{B}^{n/r}_{r,\rho}(\Bbb{R}^{n})\subset L^{q}(\Bbb{R}^{n})$ for all q with p ≦ q<∞, where 1≦ p ≦ r<∞ and 1<ρ ≦∞. Indeed, the following inequality holds: $$\|u\|_{L^{q}(\Bbb{R}^{n})}\leqq C\,q^{1-1/\rho}\|u\|_{L^{p}(\Bbb{R}^{n})}^{p/q}\|u\|_{\dot{B}^{n/r}_{r,\rho}(\Bbb{R}^{n})}^{1-p/q},$$ where C is a constant depending only on r. In this inequality, we have the exact order 1?1/ρ of divergence to the power q tending to the infinity. Furthermore, as a corollary of this inequality, we obtain the Gagliardo-Nirenberg inequality with the homogeneous Triebel-Lizorkin space $\dot{F}^{n/r}_{r,\rho}(\Bbb{R}^{n})$ , which implies the usual Sobolev imbedding with the critical Sobolev space $\dot{H}^{n/r}_{r}(\Bbb{R}^{n})$ . Moreover, as another corollary, we shall prove the Trudinger-Moser type inequality in $\dot{B}^{n/r}_{r,\rho}(\Bbb{R}^{n})$ .     

Note on the Pair-crossing Number and the Odd-crossing Number

The crossing number of a graph G is the minimum possible number of edge-crossings in a drawing of G, the pair-crossing number is the minimum possible number of crossing pairs of edges in a drawing of G, and the odd-crossing number is the minimum number of pairs of edges that cross an odd number of times. Clearly, . We construct graphs with . This improves the bound of Pelsmajer, Schaefer and Štefankovič. Our construction also answers an old question of Tutte. Slightly improving the bound of Valtr, we also show that if the pair-crossing number of G is k, then its crossing number is at most O(k ²/log ² k). G. Tóth’s research was supported by the Hungarian Research Fund grant OTKA-K-60427 and the Research Foundation of the City University of New York.     

Limit relation between toda chains and the elliptic SL(N, ?) top

We study a limit relation between the elliptic SL(N,?) top and Toda chains. We show that in the case of the nonautonomous SL(2, ?) top, whose equations of motion are related to the Painlevé VI equation, it turns out to be possible to modify the previously proposed procedure and in the limit obtain the nonautonomous Toda chain, whose equations of motion are equivalent to a particular case of the Painlevé III equation. We obtain the limit of the Lax pair for the elliptic SL(2, ?) top, which allows representing the equations of motion of the nonautonomous Toda chain as the equation for isomonodromic deformations.     

Initialization of the Shooting Method via the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Approach

The aim of this paper is to investigate from the numerical point of view the coupling of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation and the Pontryagin minimum principle (PMP) to solve some control problems. A rough approximation of the value function computed by the HJB method is used to obtain an initial guess for the PMP method. The advantage of our approach over other initialization techniques (such as continuation or direct methods) is to provide an initial guess close to the global minimum. Numerical tests involving multiple minima, discontinuous control, singular arcs and state constraints are considered.     

Maximal chains inωω and ultrapowers of the integers

Summary Various questions posed by P. Nyikos concerning ultrafilters on and chains in the partial order (, <^*) are answered. The main tool is the oracle chain condition and variations of it.The first author is partially supported by the basic research fund of the Israeli Academy. The second author is partially supported by NSERC and was a guest of Rutgers University while the research on this paper was being done. The authors would also like to thank P. Nyikos for his valuable comments on early versions of this paper. This is number 465 on the first author's list of publications     

Continuous dependence on the boundary conditions for the Wentzell Laplacian

The solution u of the well-posed problem

How to get the timing right. A computational model of the effects of the timing of contacts on team cohesion in demographically diverse teams

Lau and Murnighan’s faultline theory explains negative effects of demographic diversity on team performance as consequence of strong demographic faultlines. If demographic differences between group members are correlated across various dimensions, the team is likely to show a “subgroup split” that inhibits communication and effective collaboration between team members. Our paper proposes a rigorous formal and computational reconstruction of the theory. Our model integrates four elementary mechanisms of social interaction, homophily, heterophobia, social influence and rejection into a computational representation of the dynamics of both opinions and social relations in the team. Computational experiments demonstrate that the central claims of faultline theory are consistent with the model. We show furthermore that the model highlights a new structural condition that may give managers a handle to temper the negative effects of strong demographic faultlines. We call this condition the timing of contacts. Computational analyses reveal that negative effects of strong faultlines critically depend on who is when brought in contact with whom in the process of social interactions in the team. More specifically, we demonstrate that faultlines have hardly negative effects when teams are initially split into demographically homogeneous subteams that are merged only when a local consensus has developed.     

Maximum Principle of Optimal Control of the Primitive Equations of the Ocean with Two Point Boundary State Constraint

We consider a class of stochastic impulse control problems of general stochastic processes i.e. not necessarily Markovian. Under fairly general conditions we establish existence of an optimal impulse control. We also prove existence of combined optimal stochastic and impulse control of a fairly general class of diffusions with random coefficients. Unlike, in the Markovian framework, we cannot apply quasi-variational inequalities techniques. We rather derive the main results using techniques involving reflected BSDEs and the Snell envelope.     

Weak Continuity of the Flow Map for the Benjamin-Ono Equation on the Line

In this paper we show that the flow map of the Benjamin-Ono equation on the line is weakly continuous in L ²(?), using “local smoothing” estimates. L ²(?) is believed to be a borderline space for the local well-posedness theory of this equation. In the periodic case, Molinet (Math. Ann. 337, 353–383, 2007) has recently proved that the flow map of the Benjamin-Ono equation is not weakly continuous in $L^{2}(\mathbb{T})In this paper we show that the flow map of the Benjamin-Ono equation on the line is weakly continuous in L ²(ℝ), using “local smoothing” estimates. L ²(ℝ) is believed to be a borderline space for the local well-posedness theory of this equation. In the periodic case, Molinet (Math. Ann. 337, 353–383, 2007) has recently proved that the flow map of the Benjamin-Ono equation is not weakly continuous in L²(\mathbbT)L^{2}(\mathbb{T}). Our results are in line with previous work on the cubic nonlinear Schr?dinger equation, where Goubet and Molinet (Nonlinear Anal. 71, 317–320, 2009) showed weak continuity in L ²(ℝ) and Molinet (Am. J. Math. 130, 635–683, 2008) showed lack of weak continuity in L²(\mathbbT)L^{2}(\mathbb{T}).     

Pointwise Estimates for Laplace Equation. Applications to the Free Boundary of the Obstacle Problem with Dini Coefficients

In this paper we are interested in pointwise regularity of solutions to elliptic equations. In a first result, we prove that if the modulus of mean oscillation of Δu at the origin is Dini (in L ^p average), then the origin is a Lebesgue point of continuity (still in L ^p average) for the second derivatives D ² u. We extend this pointwise regularity result to the obstacle problem for the Laplace equation with Dini right hand side at the origin. Under these assumptions, we prove that the solution to the obstacle problem has a Taylor expansion up to the order 2 (in the L ^p average). Moreover we get a quantitative estimate of the error in this Taylor expansion for regular points of the free boundary. In the case where the right hand side is moreover double Dini at the origin, we also get a quantitative estimate of the error for singular points of the free boundary. Our method of proof is based on some decay estimates obtained by contradiction, using blow-up arguments and Liouville Theorems. In the case of singular points, our method uses moreover a refined monotonicity formula.