The six semifield planes associated with a semifield flock

In 1965 Knuth (J. Algebra 2 (1965) 182) noticed that a finite semifield was determined by a 3-cube array (a_ijk) and that any permutation of the indices would give another semifield. In this article we explain the geometrical significance of these permutations. It is known that a pair of functions (f,g) where f and g are functions from GF(q) to GF(q) with the property that f and g are linear over some subfield and g(x)²+4xf(x) is a non-square for all x∈GF(q)∗, q odd, give rise to certain semifields, one of which is commutative of rank 2 over its middle nucleus, one of which arises from a semifield flock of the quadratic cone, and another that comes from a translation ovoid of Q(4,q). We show that there are in fact six non-isotopic semifields that can be constructed from such a pair of functions, which will give rise to six non-isomorphic semifield planes, unless (f,g) are of linear type or of Dickson-Kantor-Knuth type. These six semifields fall into two sets of three semifields related by Knuth operations.     

Uniform persistence for nonautonomous and random parabolic Kolmogorov systems

The purpose of this paper is to investigate uniform persistence for nonautonomous and random parabolic Kolmogorov systems via the skew-product semiflows approach. It is first shown that the uniform persistence of the skew-product semiflow associated with a nonautonomous (random) parabolic Kolmogorov system implies that of the system. Various sufficient conditions in terms of the so-called unsaturatedness and/or Lyapunov exponents for uniform persistence of the skew-product semiflows are then provided. Among others, it is shown that if the associated skew-product semiflow has a global attractor and its restriction to the boundary of the state space has a Morse decomposition which is unsaturated or whose external Lyapunov exponents are positive, then it is uniformly persistent. More specific conditions are discussed for uniform persistence in n-species, particularly 3-species, random competitive systems.     

An analytical proof of Hardy-like inequalities related to the Dirac operator

We prove some sharp Hardy-type inequalities related to the Dirac operator by elementary, direct methods. Some of these inequalities have been obtained previously using spectral information about the Dirac-Coulomb operator. Our results are stated under optimal conditions on the asymptotics of the potentials near zero and near infinity.     

On a stochastic hyperbolic integro-differential equation

In this paper we study an initial-boundary-value problem for a hyperbolic integro-differential equation with random memory and a random noise. We establish the existence, uniqueness and exponential stability of solutions. Our method consists of finite-dimensional approximation and energy estimates.     

On the Metrical Theory of Continued Fraction Mixing Fibred Systems and Its Application to Jacobi-Perron Algorithm

 We study the metrical theory of fibred systems, in particular, in the case of continued fraction mixing systems. We get the limit distribution of the largest value of a continued fraction mixing stationary stochastic process with infinite expectation and some related results. These are analogous to J. Galambos, W. Philipp, and H. G. Diamond–J. D. Vaaler theorems for the regular continued fractions. As an application, we see that these theorems hold for Jacobi-Perron algorithm. Received September 30, 2001; in revised form January 8, 2002     

A new joint model for longitudinal and survival data with a cure fraction

We develop a new joint cure rate model for longitudinal and survival data. The model allows for multiple longitudinal markers as well as a cure structure for the survival component based on the promotion time cure rate model, as described in Ibrahim et al. (Bayesian Survival Analysis, Springer, New York, 2001). Several characteristics and properties of the new model are discussed and examined. A real dataset from a melanoma clinical trial is given to demonstrate the methodology.     

Separable free quadratic algebras over quadratic integers

The aim of the paper is to determine all free separable quadratic algebras over the rings of integers of quadratic fields in terms of the properties of the fundamental unit in the real case. The paper corrects some earlier published results on the subject.     

Measurability implies continuity for solutions of functional equations - even with few variables

Summary. We prove that - under certain conditions - measurable solutions $f$ of the functional equation $f(x)=h(x,y,f(g_{1}(x,y)),\ldots,f(g_{n}(x,y))),\quad(x,y)\in D \subset \mathbb{R}^{s} \times \mathbb{R}^{l}$ are continuous, even if $1\le l\le s$. As a tool we introduce new classes of functions which - roughly speaking - interpolate between continuous and Lebesgue measurable functions. Connection between these classes are also investigated.     

Dynamic frictionless contact with adhesion

A model for the dynamic, adhesive, frictionless contact between a viscoelastic body and a deformable foundation is described. The adhesion process is modeled by a bonding field on the contact surface. The contact is described by a modified normal compliance condition. The tangential shear due to the bonding field is included. The problem is formulated as a coupled system of a variational equality for the displacements and a differential equation for the bonding field. The existence of a unique weak solution for the problem is established, together with a partial regularity result. The existence proof proceeds by construction of an appropriate mapping which is shown to be a contraction on a Hilbert space.