An impulsively controlled predator–pest model with disease in the pest

In this paper, we consider an integrated pest management model with disease in the pest and a stage structure for its natural predator, which is subject to impulsive and periodic controls. A nonlinear incidence rate expressed in an abstract form, is used to describe the propagation of the disease, which is spread through the periodic release of infective pests, the functional response of the mature predator also being given in an abstract, unspecified form. Sufficient conditions for the local and global stability of the susceptible pest-eradication periodic solution are found by means of Floquet theory and comparison methods, the permanence of the system also being discussed. These stability conditions are shown to be biologically significant, being reformulated as balance conditions for the susceptible pest class.     

Mathematical model for pest–insect control using mating disruption and trapping

Controlling pest insects is a challenge of main importance to preserve crop production. In the context of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, we develop a generic model to study the impact of mating disruption control using an artificial female pheromone to confuse males and adversely affect their mating opportunities. Consequently the reproduction rate is diminished leading to a decline in the population size. For more efficient control, trapping is used to capture the males attracted by the artificial pheromone. The model, derived from biological and ecological assumptions, is governed by a piecewise smooth system of ODEs. A theoretical analysis of the model without control is first carried out to establish the properties of the endemic equilibrium. Then, control is added and the theoretical analysis of the model enables to identify threshold values of pheromone which are practically interesting for field applications. In particular, we show that there is a threshold above which the global asymptotic stability of the trivial equilibrium is ensured, i.e. the population goes to extinction. Finally, we illustrate the theoretical results via numerical experiments.     

Time-limited pest control of a Lotka–Volterra model with impulsive harvest

A kind of time-limited pest control of a Lotka–Volterra model with impulsive harvest, described by the initial and boundary value problem of impulsive differential equation, is presented. The aim of pest control can be achieved if the model has a solution, otherwise the aim cannot be achieved. By the comparison principle, the conditions under which the model has a solution are found by a series of the upper solutions and the conditions under which the model has no solution are also given by a series of the lower solutions. Furthermore, if the other parameters are given, the times of harvesting pest in the given time is estimated. The theoretical results and the numerical simulations show that the density of the natural enemy will decrease when the pest decreases although the control measures to the pest do not directly affect the natural enemy. Finally, some discussions are given.     

A natural order in dynamical systems based on Conley–Markov matrices

We introduce a natural order to study properties of dynamical systems, especially their invariant sets. The new concept is based on the classical Conley index theory and transition probabilities among neighborhoods of different invariant sets when the dynamical systems are perturbed by white noises. The transition probabilities can be determined by the Fokker–Planck equation and they form a matrix called a Markov matrix. In the limiting case when the random perturbation is reduced to zero, the Markov matrix recovers the information given by the Conley connection matrix. The Markov matrix also produces a natural order from the least to the most stable invariant sets for general dynamical systems. In particular, it gives the order among the local extreme points if the dynamical system is a gradient-like flow of an energy functional. Consequently, the natural order can be used to determine the global minima for gradient-like systems. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the Markov matrix and its properties.     

A predator–prey model with disease in the prey and two impulses for integrated pest management

In this paper, a predator–prey model with disease in the prey is constructed and investigated for the purpose of integrated pest management. In the first part of the main results, the sufficient condition for the global stability of the susceptible pest-eradication periodic solution is obtained, which means if the release amount of infective prey and predator satisfy the condition, then the pest will be controlled. The sufficient condition for the permanence of the system is also obtained subsequently, which means if the release amount of infective prey and predator satisfy the condition, then the prey and the predator will coexist. At last, we interpret our mathematical results.     

Dynamics analysis of a pest management prey–predator model by means of interval state monitoring and control

In this work, a new pest management strategy by means of interval state monitoring is introduced into a prey–predator model, i.e. when the pest density exceeds the slightly harmful level but is below the damage level, the biological control is adopted in case of the predator density below a maintainable level, once the pest density exceeds the damage level, the chemical control is adopted. In order to determine the frequency of the chemical control and yield of releases of the predator, analysis on the existence of order-1 or order-2 periodic orbit is carried out by the construction of Poincaré map. The results could make the pest control strategy to be a periodic one without real-time monitoring the species. In addition, the stability and attractiveness of the periodic orbit are obtained by geometry approach, which ensures a certain robustness of control, i.e., even though the species densities are detected inaccurately or with a deviation, the system will be eventually stable at the periodic orbit under the control action. Furthermore, to obtain the optimum chemical control strength and yield releases of the predator, an optimization problem is constructed. The analytical results presented in the work are validated by numerical simulations for a specific model.     

Church–Rosser property of a simple reduction for full first-order classical natural deduction

A system of typed terms which corresponds with the classical natural deduction with one conclusion and full logical symbols is defined. Church–Rosser property of the system is proved using an extended method of parallel reduction.     

New mathematical model for computing natural frequencies of retaining walls considering soil–structure interaction

In this study, a new analytical model is proposed for estimating natural frequencies of retaining walls, and accordingly three closed-form formulas are presented for calculating the first three natural frequencies. In the first step, rigid body motion of retaining walls is taken into account and two closed-form formulas for calculating natural frequencies of the rigid mode of deformation are presented via exact solution. Next, applying the energy method, a new closed-form formula is developed for calculating the natural frequency of the flexural deformation mode. Another innovation of this paper is the modeling of the foundation soil with both torsional and translational springs that make it possible to consider rocking and sliding modes for retaining wall motion. Additionally, the effect of backfill soil interaction is taken into consideration by massless translational springs along the wall. The results thus obtained from the proposed formulas are then compared with numerical analysis using ANSYS software, and a good agreement was observed.     

How quadratic are the natural numbers?

Abstract. For natural numbers n we inspect all factorizations n = ab of n with a ￡ ba \le b in \Bbb N\Bbb N and denote by n=a_n b_nn=a_n b_n the most quadratic one, i.e. such that b_n - a_nb_n - a_n is minimal. Then the quotient k(n) : = a_n/b_n\kappa (n) := a_n/b_n is a measure for the quadraticity of n. The best general estimate for k(n)\kappa (n) is of course very poor: 1/n ￡ k(n) ￡ 11/n \le \kappa (n)\le 1. But a Theorem of Hall and Tenenbaum [1, p. 29], implies(logn)^-d-e ￡ k(n) ￡ (logn)^-d(\log n)^{-\delta -\varepsilon } \le \kappa (n) \le (\log n)^{-\delta } on average, with d = 1 - (1+log₂  2)/log2=0,08607 ?\delta = 1 - (1+\log _2 \,2)/\log 2=0,08607 \ldots and for every e > 0\varepsilon >0. Hence the natural numbers are fairly quadratic.¶k(n)\kappa (n) characterizes a specific optimal factorization of n. A quadraticity measure, which is more global with respect to the prime factorization of n, is k^*(n): = ?_{1 ￡ a ￡ b, ab=n} a/b\kappa ^*(n):= \textstyle\sum\limits \limits _{1\le a \le b, ab=n} a/b. We show k^*(n) ~ \frac 12\kappa ^*(n) \sim \frac {1}{2} on average, and k^*(n)=W(2^{\frac 12(1-e) log n/log ₂n})\kappa ^*(n)=\Omega (2^{\frac {1}{2}(1-\varepsilon ) {\log}\, n/{\log} _2n})for every e > 0\varepsilon>0.     

The onset of positive periodic solutions for a biochemical pest management model

In this paper, the bifurcation of nontrivial periodic solutions for an impulsively perturbed system of ordinary differential equations which models an integrated pest management strategy is studied by means of a fixed point approach. A biological control, consisting in the periodic release of infective pests, and a chemical control, consisting in pesticide spraying, are employed to maintain susceptible pests below an acceptable level. It is assumed that the biological and chemical control act with the same periodicity, but not in the same time. It is then shown that if the constant amount of infective pests released each time reaches a certain threshold value, then the trivial susceptible pest-eradication periodic solution loses its stability, which is transferred to a newly emerging nontrivial periodic solution.     

Identification of fixedness and loading of an end of the Euler–Bernoulli beam by the natural frequencies of its vibrations

Under consideration is the uniform Euler–Bernoulli beam whose left end is fixed, and some load elastically fixed by two springs is concentrated at the right end. If the beam is hit then it begins vibrating. The aim of the article is to determine the parameters of fixedness (rigidity coefficients of springs) and loading (the mass andmoment of inertia of the load) of the right end of the beam by natural frequencies of its flexural vibrations. It is shown that the four unknown parameters of the boundary conditions at the right end of the beam are uniquely determined from the five natural frequencies of its flexural vibrations. Some counterexample is presented showing that four natural frequencies are insufficient for the unique identification of these four nonnegative parameters.     

Can chunking reduce syntactic complexity of natural languages?

Natural language is a complex adaptive system with multiple levels. The hierarchical structure may have much to do with the complexity of language. Dependency Distance has been invoked to explain various linguistic patterns regarding syntactic complexity. However, little attention has been paid to how the structural properties of language to minimize dependency distance. This article computationally simulates several chunked artificial languages, and shows, through comparison with Mandarin Chinese, that chunking may significantly reduce mean dependency distance of linear sequences. These results suggest that language may have evolved the mechanism of dynamic chunking to reduce the complexity for the sake of efficient communication. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 33–41, 2016     

When is a natural duality ‘good’?

Building on the most current work in the theory of natural dualities, we continue the study of strong dualities for the quasi-variety generated by a finite algebra. We investigate ten different versions of what we would like to mean by a good duality. Each version concerns, among other things, a specific restriction on the type of the structures in the dual category which insures that the dual structures will in a useful sense be simple. Through each investigation we seek a theorem characterizing, in terms of finitely verifiable conditions, those finite algebras generating a quasi-variety which admits a strong duality meeting the given restrictions. Our study includes a careful treatment of coproducts, logarithmic dualities and strong dualities by various unary structures.Dedicated to the memory of Alan DayPresented by J. Sichler.Research supported by a 1992 ARC Grant (Davey).     

Track–Monitoring of Wheel–Rail–Systems

Inspection and maintenance of railway networks is a complex and expensive task. Special measurement vehicles are used to record the geometrical properties of railway lines within required time intervals. Due to the extent of measurement data the quality of railway track is evaluated considering only a few parameters. Although safety and comfort of wheel–rail–systems depend on the dynamical behavior, current inspection vehicles are not equipped to measure dynamic properties. In this paper, we will discuss a novel approach to evaluate the quality of railway tracks based on wheel–rail dynamics: Wheelset dynamics of subway trains are analyzed by Karhunen–Loève Transformation to extract the principal dynamics from the collected measurement data. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On theorems of Delsarte–McEliece and Chevalley–Warning–Ax–Katz

We present a theorem that generalizes the result of Delsarte and McEliece on the p-divisibilities of weights in abelian codes. Our result generalizes the Delsarte–McEliece theorem in the same sense that the theorem of N. M. Katz generalizes the theorem of Ax on the p-divisibilities of cardinalities of affine algebraic sets over finite fields. As the Delsarte–McEliece theorem implies the theorem of Ax, so our generalization implies that of N. M. Katz. The generalized theorem gives the p-divisibility of the t-wise Hamming weights of t-tuples of codewords (c ⁽¹⁾, . . . ,c ^(t)) as these words range over a product of abelian codes, where the t-wise Hamming weight is defined as the number of positions i in which the codewords do not simultaneously vanish, i.e., for which ${(c^{(1)}_i,\ldots,c^{(t)}_i)\not=(0,\ldots,0)}$ . We also present a version of the theorem that, for any list of t symbols s ₁, . . . ,s _t , gives p-adic estimates of the number of positions i such that ${(c^{(1)}_i,\ldots,c^{(t)}_i)=(s_1,\ldots,s_t)}$ as these words range over a product of abelian codes.     

Discrete potential Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur equation

We establish a discrete model for the potential Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur equation via a generalized Cauchy matrix approach. Soliton solutions and Jordan block solutions of this equation are presented by solving the determining equation set. By applying appropriate continuum limits, we obtain two semi-discrete potential Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur equations. The reductions to real and complex discrete and semi-discrete potential modified Korteweg-de Vries equations are also discussed.     

On the Carey–Helton–Howe–Pincus trace formula

In this article, we give a new proof of the Carey–Helton–Howe–Pincus trace formula using Kato's theory of “relatively-smooth” operators and Krein's trace formula.     

Orlicz–Brunn–Minkowski inequalities for Blaschke–Minkowski homomorphisms

Orlicz–Brunn–Minkowski type inequalities for Blaschke–Minkowski homomorphisms and their polars are established.