Structural properties of Markov chains with weak and strong interactions

Markov chains have been frequently used to characterize uncertainty in many real-world problems. Quite often, these Markov chains can be decomposed into a vector consisting of fast and slow components; these components are coupled through weak and strong interactions. The main goal of this work is to study the structural properties of such Markov chains. Under mild conditions, it is proved that the underlying Markov chain can be approximated in the weak topology of L² by an aggregated process. Moreover, the aggregated process is shown to converge in distribution to a Markov chain as the rate of fast transitions tends to infinity. Under an additional Lipschitz condition, error bounds of the approximation sequences are obtained.     

PROMETHEE-MD-2T method for project selection

Project selection is a real problem of multicriteria group decision making (MCGDM) where each decision maker expresses his/her preferences depending on the nature of the alternatives and on his/her own knowledge over them. Thus, information, as much quantitative as qualitative, coexists. The traditional methods of MCGDM developed for project selection usually discriminates in favour of quantitative information at the expense of qualitative information, and this is due to the capability to integrate this first type of information inside their procedure. In this article, two new multicriteria 2-tuple group decision methods called “Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluation Multi Decision maker 2-Tuple-I and II” (PROMETHEE-MD-2T-I and II) are presented. They are able to integrate inside their procedure both quantitative and qualitative information in an uncertain context. This has been performed by integrating a 2-tuple linguistic representation model dealing with non-homogeneous and imprecise information data made up by valued intervals, numerical and linguistic values into the aggregation operators of Promethee methods. Although they have been developed for project selection problems, these proposed methods can be applied to all kinds of decision-making problems with heterogeneous and multigranular information.     

A new class of Ornstein transformations with singular spectrum

It is shown that for any family of probability measures in Ornstein type constructions, the corresponding transformation has almost surely a singular spectrum. This is a new generalization of Bourgain's theorem [J. Bourgain, On the spectral type of Ornstein class one transformations, Israel J. Math. 84 (1993) 53–63], same result is proved for Rudolph's construction [D. Rudolph, An example of a measure-preserving map with minimal self-joining and applications, J. Anal. Math. 35 (1979) 97–122].     

Parametric Euler sum identities

We consider some parametrized classes of multiple sums first studied by Euler. Identities between meromorphic functions of one or more variables in many cases account for reduction formulae for these sums.     

Constructing frames for finite dimensional Hilbert spaces

In this paper, we use the characterization of frames, introduced in [W. Rolli, A characterization of frames for finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, preprint], to construct frames for finite dimensional Hilbert spaces. Furthermore this approach allows for the construction of frames with prescribed properties.     

Smallest singular value of random matrices and geometry of random polytopes

We study the behaviour of the smallest singular value of a rectangular random matrix, i.e., matrix whose entries are independent random variables satisfying some additional conditions. We prove a deviation inequality and show that such a matrix is a “good” isomorphism on its image. Then, we obtain asymptotically sharp estimates for volumes and other geometric parameters of random polytopes (absolutely convex hulls of rows of random matrices). All our results hold with high probability, that is, with probability exponentially (in dimension) close to 1.     

Supercritical biharmonic equations with power-type nonlinearity

We study two different versions of a supercritical biharmonic equation with a power-type nonlinearity. First, we focus on the equation Δ² u = |u| ^p-1 u over the whole space , where n > 4 and p > (n + 4)/(n − 4). Assuming that p < p _c, where p _c is a further critical exponent, we show that all regular radial solutions oscillate around an explicit singular radial solution. As it was already known, on the other hand, no such oscillations occur in the remaining case p ≥ p _c. We also study the Dirichlet problem for the equation Δ² u = λ (1 + u) ^p over the unit ball in , where λ > 0 is an eigenvalue parameter, while n > 4 and p > (n + 4)/(n − 4) as before. When it comes to the extremal solution associated to this eigenvalue problem, we show that it is regular as long as p < p _c. Finally, we show that a singular solution exists for some appropriate λ > 0.      

Constant-sign solutions for systems of singular integral equations of Hammerstein type

We consider the system of Hammerstein integral equations

where T>0 is fixed, ρ_i’s are given functions and the nonlinearities f_i(t,x₁,x₂,…,x_n) can be singular at t=0 and x_j=0 where j{1,2,,n}. Criteria are offered for the existence of constant-sign solutions, i.e., θ_iu_i(t)≥0 for t[0,T] and 1≤i≤n, where θ_i{1,−1} is fixed. The tools used are a nonlinear alternative of Leray–Schauder type, Krasnosel’skii’s fixed point theorem in a cone and Schauder’s fixed point theorem. We also include examples and applications to illustrate the usefulness of the results obtained.     

A finite differences MATLAB code for the numerical solution of second order singular perturbation problems

We show the main features of the MATLAB code HOFiD_UP for solving second order singular perturbation problems. The code is based on high order finite differences, in particular on the generalized upwind method. Within its simplicity, it uses order variation and continuation for solving any difficult nonlinear scalar problem. Several numerical tests on linear and nonlinear problems are considered. The best performances are reported on problems with perturbation parameters near the machine precision, where most of the codes for two-point BVPs fail.