Nonexistence of <Emphasis Type=Italic>CW</Emphasis>(110, 100)

Using character theoretic methods, we settle the existence status of a circulant weighing matrix of order 110 with weight 100. This fills a missing entry in recent tables, thereby answering the existence of previously open CW (110,100) with answer “NO”.     

A Construction of Partial Difference Sets in {\mathbb{Z}}_{p^{2 \times } } {\mathbb{Z}}_{p^{2 \times \cdot \cdot \cdot \times } } {\mathbb{Z}}_{p^2 }

In this paper, we give a construction of partial difference sets in _p ² x _p ² x ... x _p ²using some finite local rings.Dedicated to Hanfried Lenz on the occasion of his 80th birthdayThe work of this paper was done when the authors visited the University of Hong Kong.     

Symmetric Weighing Matrices Constructed using Group Matrices

A weighing matrix of order n and weight m² is a square matrix M of order n with entries from {-1,0,+1} such that MM^T=m²I where I is the identity matrix of order n. If M is a group matrix constructed using a group of order n, M is called a group weighing matrix. Recently, group weighing matrices were studied intensively, especially when the groups are cyclic and abelian. In this paper, we study the abelian group weighing matrices that are symmetric, i.e.M^T=M. Some new examples are found. Also we obtain a few exponent bounds on abelian groups that admit symmetric group weighing matrices. In particular, we prove that there is no symmetric abelian group weighing matrices of order 2p^r and weight p² where p is a prime and p≥ 5.Communicated by: K.T. Arasu     

Bond pricing under a Markovian regime-switching jump-augmented Vasicek model via stochastic flows

In this article, we shall explore the state of art of stochastic flows to derive an exponential affine form of the bond price when the short rate process is governed by a Markovian regime-switching jump-diffusion version of the Vasicek model. We provide the flexibility that the market parameters, including the mean-reversion level, the volatility rate and the intensity of the jump component switch over time according to a continuous-time, finite-state Markov chain. The states of the chain may be interpreted as different states of an economy or different stages of a business cycle. We shall provide a representation for the exponential affine form of the bond price in terms of fundamental matrix solutions of linear matrix differential equations.     

Further properties of the forward–backward envelope with applications to difference-of-convex programming

In this paper, we further study the forward–backward envelope first introduced in Patrinos and Bemporad (Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp 2358–2363, 2013) and Stella et al. (Comput Optim Appl, doi: 10.1007/s10589-017-9912-y, 2017) for problems whose objective is the sum of a proper closed convex function and a twice continuously differentiable possibly nonconvex function with Lipschitz continuous gradient. We derive sufficient conditions on the original problem for the corresponding forward–backward envelope to be a level-bounded and Kurdyka–?ojasiewicz function with an exponent of \(\frac{1}{2}\); these results are important for the efficient minimization of the forward–backward envelope by classical optimization algorithms. In addition, we demonstrate how to minimize some difference-of-convex regularized least squares problems by minimizing a suitably constructed forward–backward envelope. Our preliminary numerical results on randomly generated instances of large-scale \(\ell _{1-2}\) regularized least squares problems (Yin et al. in SIAM J Sci Comput 37:A536–A563, 2015) illustrate that an implementation of this approach with a limited-memory BFGS scheme usually outperforms standard first-order methods such as the nonmonotone proximal gradient method in Wright et al. (IEEE Trans Signal Process 57:2479–2493, 2009).     

Finite generation of canonical ring by analytic method

An overview of the analytic proof of the theorem on the finite generation of the canonical ring for the projective algebraic manifold of general type is given.     

Some New Results on Circulant Weighing Matrices

We obtain a few structural theorems for circulant weighing matrices whose weight is the square of a prime number. Our results provide new schemes to search for these objects. We also establish the existence status of several previously open cases of circulant weighing matrices. More specifically we show their nonexistence for the parameter pairs (n, k) (here n is the order of the matrix and k its weight) = (147, 49), (125, 25), (200, 25), (55, 25), (95, 25), (133, 49), (195, 25), (11 w, 121) for w < 62.     

Small subgraphs of random regular graphs

The main aim of this short paper is to answer the following question. Given a fixed graph H, for which values of the degree d does a random d-regular graph on n vertices contain a copy of H with probability close to one?     

A new processing method of CaZn2(OH)6·2H2O powders: Photoluminescence and growth mechanism

In this communication, we report on the formation of calcium hexahydroxodizincate dehydrate, CaZn₂(OH)₆·2H₂O (CZO) powders under microwave-hydrothermal (MH) conditions. These powders were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field-emission gum scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. XRD patterns confirmed that the pure CZO phase was obtained after MH processing performed at 130 °C for 2 h. FEG-SEM micrographs indicated that the morphological modifications as well as the growth of CZO microparticles are governed by Ostwald-ripening and coalescence mechanisms. UV-vis spectra showed that this material have an indirect optical band gap. The pure CZO powders exhibited an yellow PL emission when excited by 350 nm wavelength at room temperature.