Cause–effect analysis: improvement of a first year engineering students’ calculus teaching model

This study focuses on the mathematics department at a South African university and in particular on teaching of calculus to first year engineering students. The paper reports on a cause–effect analysis, often used for business improvement. The cause–effect analysis indicates that there are many factors that impact on secondary school teaching of mathematics, factors that the tertiary sector has no control over. The analysis also indicates the undesirable issues that are at the root of impeding success in the calculus module. Most important is that students are not encouraged to become independent thinkers from an early age. This triggers problems in follow-up courses where students are expected to have learned to deal with the work load and understanding of certain concepts. A new model was designed to lessen the impact of these undesirable issues.     

Candidates for nonzero Betti numbers of monomial ideals

Let I be a monomial ideal in the polynomial ring S generated by elements of degree at most d. In this paper, it is shown that, if the i-th syzygy of I has no elements of degrees j,…,j+(d?1) (where j≥i+d), then (i+1)-th syzygy of I does not have any element of degree j+d. Then we give several applications of this result, including an alternative proof for Green–Lazarsfeld index of the edge ideals of graphs as well as an alternative proof for Fröberg’s theorem on classification of square-free monomial ideals generated in degree 2 with linear resolution. Among all, we deduce a partial result on subadditivity of the syzygies for monomial ideals.     

Hochster’s small MCM conjecture for three-dimensional weakly F-split rings

We prove Hochster’s small maximal Cohen–Macaulay conjecture for three-dimensional complete F-pure rings. We deduce this from a more general criterion, and show that only a weakening of the notion of F-purity is needed, to wit, being weakly F-split. We conjecture that any complete ring is weakly F-split.     

On the Auslander–Reiten conjecture for Cohen–Macaulay rings and path algebras

In this note, it is shown that the validity of the Auslander–Reiten conjecture for a given d-dimensional Cohen–Macaulay local ring R depends on its validity for all direct summands of d-th syzygy of R-modules of finite length, provided R is an isolated singularity. Based on this result, it is shown that under a mild assumption on the base ring R, satisfying the Auslander–Reiten conjecture behaves well under completion and reduction modulo regular elements. In addition, it will turn out that, if R is a commutative Noetherian ring and 𝒬 a finite acyclic quiver, then the Auslander–Reiten conjecture holds true for the path algebra R𝒬, whenever so does R. Using this result, examples of algebras satisfying the Auslander–Reiten conjecture are presented.     

Structures of the twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra

In this paper, we determine the universal central extension, derivation algebra and automorphism group of the twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra. Furthermore, we generalize these results to the generalized twisted N = 1 Schrödinger–Neveu–Schwarz algebra in the final section.     

On the distribution of cumulative Parisian ruin

We introduce the concept of cumulative Parisian ruin, which is based on the time spent in the red by the underlying surplus process. Our main result is an explicit representation for the distribution of the occupation time, over a finite-time horizon, for a compound Poisson process with drift and exponential claims. The Brownian ruin model is also studied in details. Finally, we analyse for a general framework the relationships between cumulative Parisian ruin and classical ruin, as well as with Parisian ruin based on exponential implementation delays.     

Duality,area-considerations,and the Kalai–Smorodinsky solution

We introduce a new solution concept for $2$-person bargaining problems, which can be considered as the dual of the Equal-Area solution (EA) (see Anbarc? and Bigelow (1994)). Hence, we call it the Dual Equal-Area solution (DEA). We show that the point selected by the Kalai–Smorodinsky solution (see Kalai and Smorodinsky (1975)) lies in between those that are selected by EA and DEA. We formulate an axiom–area-based fairness–and offer three characterizations of the Kalai–Smorodinsky solution in which this axiom plays a central role.     

On eight-dimensional unital division algebras over finite fields

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the eight-dimensional non-associative unital division algebras {0}≠A over finite fields, admitting elementary abelian 2-group of automorphisms E≤Aut(A), of order 8, using tools from algebraic geometry.     

Existence and Exponential Decay of Solutions for a Wave Equation with Integral Nonlocal Boundary Conditions of Memory Type

In this paper, we consider a wave equation with integral nonlocal boundary conditions of memory type. First, we establish two local existence theorems by using Faedo–Galerkin method and standard arguments of density. Next, we give a su?cient condition to guarantee the global existence and exponential decay of weak solutions. Finally, we present numerical results.