Gear composition and the stable set polytope

We present a new graph composition that produces a graph G from a given graph H and a fixed graph B called gear and we study its polyhedral properties. This composition yields counterexamples to a conjecture on the facial structure of when G is claw-free.     

On generalized cyclically monotone operators and proper quasimonotonictty

In this paper we consider an abstract subdifferential that fulfills a prioria weak type of a mean value property. We survey and extend some recent results connecting the gener-alized convexity of nonsmooth functions with the generalized cyclic monotonidty of their subdifferentials. It is shown that, for a large class of subdifferentials, a Isc function is quasiconvex if and only if its subdifferential is a cyclically quasimonotone operator. An analogous property holds for pseudoconvexity. It is also shown that the subdiffer-ential of a quasiconvex function is properly quasimonotone. This property is slightly stronger than quasimonotonicity, and is more useful in applications connected with variational inequalities     

Optimality conditions in global optimization and their applications

In this paper we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for some problems of global minimization. Our approach is based on methods of abstract convexity: we use a representation of an upper semicontinuous function as the lower envelope of a family of convex functions. We discuss applications of conditions obtained to the examination of some tractable sufficient conditions for the global minimum and to the theory of inequalities. The work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council.     

Matching polytopes,toric geometry,and the totally non-negative Grassmannian

In this paper we use toric geometry to investigate the topology of the totally non-negative part of the Grassmannian, denoted (Gr _k,n )_≥0. This is a cell complex whose cells Δ _G can be parameterized in terms of the combinatorics of plane-bipartite graphs G. To each cell Δ _G we associate a certain polytope P(G). The polytopes P(G) are analogous to the well-known Birkhoff polytopes, and we describe their face lattices in terms of matchings and unions of matchings of G. We also demonstrate a close connection between the polytopes P(G) and matroid polytopes. We use the data of P(G) to define an associated toric variety X _G . We use our technology to prove that the cell decomposition of (Gr _k,n )_≥0 is a CW complex, and furthermore, that the Euler characteristic of the closure of each cell of (Gr _k,n )_≥0 is 1. Alexander Postnikov was supported in part by NSF CAREER Award DMS-0504629. David Speyer was supported by a research fellowship from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Lauren Williams was supported in part by the NSF.     

氧化黑液木素-Mn2+(Cu2+、Zn2+)螯合物稳定性的研究

随着造纸工业的发展 ,造纸黑液的污染愈来愈受到人们的重视。目前 ,人们已采用多种方法来试图消除或降低黑液的污染。其中一重要方法是 :通过酸析法等从造纸黑液中分离出木素 (亦称木质素 ) [1] 。据估计 ,我国造纸厂每年可提取数百万吨的干木素。因此 ,有效地开拓造纸黑液木素的应用途径 ,不仅可以解决造纸厂的后顾之忧 ,更重要的是可为社会提供大量的物质财富 ,成为当今重要的研究课题。最近 ,我们通过氧化黑液木素与无机盐作用制得木素螯合微肥。试验结果表明 :与无机盐相比 ,木素螯合微肥表现出较强的肥效作用 ,这种作用可能与氧化木素…     

Fibered universal algebra for first-order logics

We extend Lawvere-Pitts prop-categories (aka. hyperdoctrines) to develop a general framework for providing fibered algebraic semantics for general first-order logics. This framework includes a natural notion of substitution, which allows first-order logics to be considered as structural closure operators just as propositional logics are in abstract algebraic logic. We then establish an extension of the homomorphism theorem from universal algebra for generalized prop-categories and characterize two natural closure operators on the prop-categorical semantics. The first closes a class of structures (which are interpreted as morphisms of prop-categories) under the satisfaction of their common first-order theory and the second closes a class of prop-categories under their associated first-order consequence. It turns out that these closure operators have characterizations that closely mirror Birkhoff's characterization of the closure of a class of algebras under the satisfaction of their common equational theory and Blok and Jónsson's characterization of closure under equational consequence, respectively. These algebraic characterizations of the first-order closure operators are unique to the prop-categorical semantics. They do not have analogues, for example, in the Tarskian semantics for classical first-order logic. The prop-categories we consider are much more general than traditional intuitionistic prop-categories or triposes (i.e., topos representing indexed partially ordered sets). Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, our results are new, even when restricted to these special classes of prop-categories.