In slender-body theories, one cften has to find asymptotic approximations for certain integrals, representing distribution:; of sources along a line segment. Here, such approximations are obtained by a systematic method that uses Mellin transforms. Results are given near the line (using cylindrical polar coordinates) and near the ends of the line segment (using spherical polar coordinates).

Sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence of a globally asymptotically stable strictly positive (componentwise) almost-periodic solution of a Lotka-Volterra system with almost periodic coefficients.

We use the “Brownian Bridge” of Schrödinger to model a statistical search problem in which the initial and final distributions of a random motion are given. We raise the question of how to use this information to optimally reconstruct a likely past event.

Error estimates are derived for a finite element analysis of plane steady subsonic flows described by the full potential equation. The analysis is based on the use of the theory of variational inequalities to accomodate the subsonic flow constraint and leads to a suboptimal estimate relative to that obtained for linear potential flow. We then consider an alternative dual formulation of the problem and obtain an optimal estimate subject to reasonable regularity assumptions.

The hydrodynamic pressure forces acting upon a slender fish are derived for the case of a fish swimming in a non-uniform velocity field. Possible applications are the effects on fish propulsion of swimming in waves, in turbulent eddies, and in the presence of other fish or a moving ship. The fish is assumed to be a slender body, with no vorticity shed into the fluid except at a single abrupt trailing edge located at the posterior end of the fish, and to be performing small lateral swimming undulations of its body. The non-uniform field through which the fish swims is assumed to be irrotational, and this field as well as the body undulations must be slowly-varying on the length-scale of the lateral fish dimensions. Expressions are derived for the local force and the time-averaged total thrust force. These are applied to the study of steady-state bow-riding and wave-riding of porpoises.

Pontryagin's maximum principle is derived by elementary mathematical techniques. The conditions on the functions which enter are generally somewhat more stringent than in Pontryagin's derivation, but one (practically very awkward) condition of Pontryagin can be relaxed: continuity in the time variable can be replaced by a much weaker condition.

It is shown that a problem which arose in the scheduling of two simultaneous competitions between a number of golf clubs may be reduced to that of 4- colouring the edges of a certain bipartite graph which has 4 edges meeting at each vertex. This colouring problem is solved by an analysis in terms of directed cycles, which is simple to carry through in a practical case and is easily extended to the problem with 4 replaced by 2m. The more general colouring problem with 4 replaced by any positive integer is solved by relating it to the marriage problem enunciated by Philip Hall and to the latin multiplication technique of Kaufmann but, in practical applications, this approach involves severe computational difficulties.

A delayed predator-prey system with Holling type III functional response is investigated. It is proved that the system is uniformly persistent under some appropriate conditions. By means of suitable Lyapunov functionals, sufficient conditions are derived for the local and global asymptotic stability of a positive equilibrium of the system. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the feasibility of our main results.

A continuous-time model of a two-sector trading economy with a finitely-saturating production function and constant population is constructed. To apply it to the farm-economy problem of optimal trading of cereal for chemical nitrogenous fertilizer and of optimal allocation of land for green manure the special assumptions are made of similar technologies in both sectors and of a nitrogen-capital loss proportional to the cereal production. Optimal-control theory is applied to get the pair of controls that maximizes an infinite-horizon integral of utility of consumption. The analysis of the model is shown to reduce to that of the Ramsey-Koopmans one-sector neoclassical model of optimal growth. Calculations of the feedback control and optimal time-paths for the standardized dimensionless model are tabulated for a range of 7 utility functions of constant elasticity of marginal utility of magnitude 1 to 4 and of production functions of degree 2 to 4. Two particular analytic solutions are given. The application of the results both to the farm-economy model and to the Ramsey-Koopmans model is illustrated.

Some generalisations of the Preece theorem involving the product of two Kummer's functions 1F1 are obtained using Dixon's theorem and some well-known identities. Its special cases yield various new transformations and reduction formulae involving Pathan's quadruple hypergeometric function and Srivastava's quadruple hypergeometric function F(4) and triple hypergeometric function F(3). Some known results of Preece, Pathan and Bailey are also obtained as special cases.

Competition between a finite number of searching insect parasites is modelled by differential equations and birth-death processes. In the one species case of intraspecific competition, the deterministic equilibrium is globally stable and, for large populations, approximates the mean of the stationary distribution of the process. For two species, both inter- and intraspecific competition occurs and the deterministic equilibrium is globally stable. When the birth-death process is reversible, it is shown that the mean of the stationary distribution is approximated by the equilibrium. Confluent hypergeometric functions of two variables are important to the theory.

Steady plane inviscid symmetric vortex streets are flows defined in the strip R × (0, b) and periodic in x with period 2a in which the flow in (−a, a) × (0, b) is irrotational outside a vortex core on which the vorticity takes a prescribed constant value. A family of such vortex street flows, characterised by a variational principle in which the area |Aα| and the centroid yc of the vortex core Aα are fixed, will be considered. For such a family, indexed by a parameter α, suppose that the cores Aα become small in the sense that

Asymptotic estimates on functionals such as flux constant and speed are obtained.

The reduction of an important class of triple integral equations to a pair of simultaneous Fredholm equations has been carried out by Cooke [1]. In this paper, Cooke's equations are transformed to new uncoupled Fredholm equations which, for certain important cases, are shown to be simpler than Cooke's and also superior for the purposes of solution by iteration.

The problem of radially directed fluid flow through a deformable porous shell is considered. General nonlinear diffusion equations are developed for spherical, cylindrical and planar geometries. Solutions for steady flow are found in terms of an exact integral and perturbation solutions are also developed. For unsteady flow, perturbation methods are used to find approximate small-time solutions and a solution valid for slow compression rates. These solutions are used to investigate the deformation of the porous material with comparisons made between the planar and the cylindrical geometries.

John Henry Michell (1863–1940) published scientific papers only between 1890 and 1902, but included in his 23 papers from that short but productive period are some of the most important contributions ever made by an Australian mathematician. In this article I shall concentrate on the extraordinary 1898 paper “The wave resistance of a ship” Phil. Mag.(5) 45, 106–123. There are many reasons why this paper was an astounding achievement, but perhaps the most remarkable is that the resulting formula has not been improved upon to this day. In the computer age, many efforts have been made to do so, but with little success so far. The formula itself involves a triple integral of an integrand constructed from the offset data for the ship's hull, and even the task of evaluating this triple integral is not a trivial one on today's computers; another reason for admiration of Michell's own heroic hand-calculated numerical work in the 1890's. Lack of a routine algorithm for Michell's integral has inhibited its use by naval architects and ship hydrodynamic laboratories, and there has been a tendency for it to receive a bad press based on unfair comparisons, e.g. comparison of model experiments (themselves often suspect) with inaccurate computations or computations for the wrong hull, etc. The original integral is in fact quite reasonable as an engineering tool, and some new results confirming this are shown. Improvement beyond Michell is however needed in some important speed ranges, and indications are given of recent approaches that may be promising.

The Hill equation is a fundamental expression in chemical i kinetics relating velocity of response to concentration. It is known that the Hill equation is parameter identifiable in the sense that perfect data yield a unique set of defining parameters. However not all sigmoidal curves can be well fit by Hill curves. In particular the lower part of the curve can't be too shallow and the upper part can't be too steep. In this paper an exact mathematical criterion is derived to describe the degree of shallowness allowed.