The problem of determining the temperature, displacement and stress fields around a single crack in an anisotropic slab is considered. The problem is reduced to Fredholm integral equations which may be solved numerically.

In an earlier paper (Part I) the existence and some related properties of the solution to a coupled pair of nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations was considered. These equations arise when material is undergoing an exothermic chemical reaction which is sustained by the diffusion of a reactant. In this paper we consider the range of parameters for which the uniqueness of solution is assured and we also investigate the converse question of multiple solutions. The special case of the one dimensional shape of the infinite slab is investigated in full as this case admits to solution by integration.

In this paper, we consider a class of systems governed by second order linear parabolic delay-partial differential equations with first boundary conditions. Our main results are reported in Theorems 3.1 and 3.2. As in [9, Theorems 4.1 and 4.2], the coefficients and forcing terms of the system considered in Theorem 3.1 are linear in the control variables. On the other hand, the forcing terms of the system considered in Theorem 3.2 are allowed to be nonlinear in the control variables at the expense of dropping the control variables in the cost integrand.

Recently, Hanson and Mond formulated a type of generalized convexity and used it to establish duality between the nonlinear programming problem and the Wolfe dual. Elsewhere, Mond and Weir gave an alternate dual, different from the Wolfe dual, that allowed the weakening of the convexity requirements. Here we establish duality between the nonlinear programming problem and the Mond-Weir dual using Hanson-Mond generalized convexity conditions.

Duality theory is discussed for fractional minimax programming problems. Two dual problems are proposed for the minimax fractional problem: minimize maxy∈Υf(x, y)/h(x, y), subject to g(x) ≤ 0. For each dual problem a duality theorm is established. Mainly these are generalisations of the results of Tanimoto [14] for minimax fractional programming problems. It is noteworthy here that these problems are intimately related to a class of nondifferentiable fractional programming problems.

The derivation of gene-transport equations is re-examined. Fisher's assumptions for a sexually reproducing species lead to a Huxley reaction-diffusion equation, with cubic logistic source term for the gene frequency of a mutant advantageous recessive gene. Fisher's equation more accurately represents the spread of an advantaged mutant strain within an asexual species. When the total population density is not uniform, these reaction-diffusion equations take on an additional non-uniform convection term. Cubic source terms of the Huxley or Fitzhugh-Nagumo type allow special nonclassical symmetries. A new exact solution, not of the travelling wave type, and with zero gradient boundary condition, is constructed.

The recent work of Cheng and Stokes on the processing of clipped signals from two or three receivers is extended and generalised by removing a number of restrictions. In particular, there is no restriction on the number of receivers and the restrictions on the statistical properties of the signal and noise processes have been considerably relaxed.

Mathematically—Plackett's result is used to expand the orthant proabilities involved in increasing powers of the input signal to noise ratio.

In this paper, the parabolic partial differential equation ut = urr + (1/r)ur − (v2/r2)u, where v ≥ 0 is a parameter, with Dirichlet, Neumann, and mixed boundary conditions is considered. The final state observability for such problems is investigated.

In order to use the method of asymptotic matching for low frequencies, the equations of plane elastostatics are reformulated in terms of the two scalar potentials commonly used in plane elastodynamics. It is shown that the resulting equations of plane elastostatics can be reduced to those first obtained by Muskhelishvili. The use of the formulation is illustrated by considering the case of the plane diffraction of a P wave by a circular, cylindrical cavity of small radius. The results agree with those obtained from the exact solution of the problem.

In this paper, we compare the direct boundary element method (BEM) and the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) for solving the direct interior Helmholtz problem, in terms of their numerical accuracy and efficiency, as well as their applicability and reliability in the frequency domain. For BEM formulation, there are two possible choices for fundamental solutions, which can lead to quite different conclusions in terms of their reliability in the frequency domain. For DRBEM formulation, it is shown that although the DBREM can correctly predict eigenfrequencies even for higher modes, it fails to yield a reasonably accurate numerical solution for the problem when the frequency is higher than the first eigenfrequency. 2000 Mathematics subject classification: primary 65N38; secondary 35Q35. Keywords and phrases: the dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM), Helmholtz equation, irregular frequencies.

In Part I of this series, surface tension was included in the classical two-dimensional planing-surface problem, and the usual smooth-detachment trailing-edge condition enforced. However, the results exhibited a paradox, in that the classical results were not approached in the limit as the surface tension approached zero. This paradox is resolved here by abandoning the smooth-detachment condition, that is, by allowing a jump discontinuity in slope between the planing surface and the free surface at the trailing edge. A unique solution is obtainable for any input planing surface at fixed wetted length if one allows such jumps at both leading and trailing edges. If, as is the case in practice, the wetted length is allowed to vary, uniqueness may be restored by requiring either, but not both, of these slope discontinuities to vanish. The results of Part I correspond to the seemingly more-natural choice of making the trailing-edge detachment continuous, but it appears that the correct choice is to require the leading-edge attachment to be continuous.

We construct games of chance from simpler games of chance. We show that it may happen that the simpler games of chance are fair or unfavourable to a player and yet the new combined game is favourable—this is a counter-intuitive phenomenon known as Parrondo's paradox. We observe that all of the games in question are random walks in periodic environments (RWPE) when viewed on the proper time scale. Consequently, we use RWPE techniques to derive conditions under which Parrondo's paradox occurs.

When an object is heated by microwaves, isolated regions of excessive heating can often occur. The present paper investigates such hotspots by both perturbation and numerical means. For quite normal materials, it is shown that small temperature anomalies can grow to form hotspots. Furthermore, such effects do not need to be associated with thermal runaway.

In this paper, a computational algorithm for solving a class of optimal control problems involving discrete time-delayed arguments is presented. By way of example, a simple model of a production firm is devised for which the algorithm is used to solve a decision-making problem.

In this paper, we present sufficient conditions for global optimality of a general nonconvex smooth minimisation model problem involving linear matrix inequality constraints with bounds on the variables. The linear matrix inequality constraints are also known as “semidefinite” constraints which arise in many applications, especially in control system analysis and design. Due to the presence of nonconvex objective functions such minimisation problems generally have many local minimisers which are not global minimisers. We develop conditions for identifying global minimisers of the model problem by first constructing a (weighted sum of squares) quadratic underestimator for the twice continuously differentiable objective function of the minimisation problem and then by characterising global minimisers of the easily tractable underestimator over the same feasible region of the original problem. We apply the results to obtain global optimality conditions for optinusation problems with discrete constraints.

We study the existence of extremal solutions for an infinite system of first-order discontinuous functional differential equations in the Banach space of the bounded functions I∞(M).