A method is derived for the solution of boundary value problems governed by a second-order elliptic partial differential equation with variable coefficients. The method is obtained by expressing the solution to a particular problem in terms of an integral taken round the boundary of the region under consideration.

We propose a new trust region algorithm for solving the system of nonsmooth equations F(x) = 0 by using a smooth function satisfying the Jacobian consistency property to approximate the nonsmooth function F(x). Compared with existing trust region methods for systems of nonsmooth equations, the proposed algorithm possesses some nice convergence properties. Global convergence is established and, in particular, locally superlinear or quadratical convergence is obtained if F is semismooth or strongly semismooth at the solution.

A duality theory for a class of fractional programs is developed. A fractionalprogram which is non-convex is convexified using a one-to-one transformation. The resulting convex equivalent is then dualized with generalized geometric programming duality.

Members of an hierarchy of integrable nonlinear evolution equations, related to the well-known linearizable diffusion equation which has the diffusivity form as the reciprocal of the square of the concentration, are adapted to derive a new integrable nonlinear equation which models the surface evolution of an arbitrarily-oriented theoretical anisotropic material by the concomitant action of evaporation-condensation and surface diffusion. The constitutive relations are explicitly formulated and these show that the theoretical anisotropic material behaves like a liquid crystal. The integrable nonlinear equation may be used to advantage as test cases for numerical schemes. Its form has many attributes of the nonlinear governing equation for an isotropic material. Closed-form solutions are constructed for the evolution of a ramped surface by concomitant evaporation-condensation and surface diffusion.

We consider the nonlinear evolution of a Hamiltonian system as the system passes through a linear resonance (as the system parameters vary). Two cases are considered. In the first case the linearized problem (at resonance) possess a full complement of normal mode solutions. This case is presented in the context of the interaction between modes which may have oppositely signed energy. The second case considered has an additional degeneracy in that the linearized problem (at resonance) has a single normal mode solution.

Both cases are analysed using normal form theory and in both cases the systems governing the transition through resonance are shown to be completely integrable in the classical sense. Possible bifurcations as the resonance is traversed are discussed. Conditions for the existence of algebraic singularities at some finite positive time are also presented.

The convergence and stability analysis of a simple explicit finite difference method is studied in this paper. Conditional convergence and stability theorems for this method are given. We have also proved that this scheme is stable in a much stronger sense.

In the continuous casting of steel, many problems, such as surface cracks in solidified steel and breakouts of molten steel from the bottom of moulds, frequently occur in practice. It is believed that the occurrence of these problems is directly related to the events in the mould, especially the transfer of heat from the strand surface across the lubricating mould powder and its interface with the mould wall to the mould cooling-water. However, as far as the authors are aware, there is no published work dealing with heat transfer across both the lubricating layer and the interface. Generally, a parameter representing the average overall heat transfer coefficient between the strand surface and the mould cooling-water is employed, instead of including the lubricating layer, the mould wall and their interface in the computation region. The existing treatment consequently does not permit analysis of some of the more important phenomena, such as the effect of mould powder properties and interface thermal contact resistance on the solidification of steel. In this paper, a novel finite element model is developed and the heat transfer across the interface between the lubricating layer and the mould wall is simulated by introducing a new type of element, referred to as the thermal contact element. The proposed model is used to investigate the effect of various casting parameters on heat transfer from the molten steel to the cooling-water. The results indicate that the thermal contact resistance between the mould wall and the mould powder is a key factor which dominates the thickness of the solidified steel shell and the heat extraction rate from the mould wall.

Para-Bose coherent states, defined as “displaced” ground states, are obtained using the differential operator representation for the annihilation operator.

A set of easily verifiable sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence of a globally asymptotically stable periodic solution in a Lotka-Volterra system with periodic coefficients.

A class of optimal control models which involve different weightings in the integrand of the objective function is considered. The motivation for considering this class of problems is that this type of objective function is used to account for eccentric movement in biomechanical models. The computation of these optimal control problems using control parametrization directly is difficult, firstly because of ill-conditioning, and secondly because the objective function is not differentiable. A method for smoothing the integrand is presented with convergence results. An example is computed which shows favourable computational improvements.

This paper develops a simple model for the containment of oil behind a boom in water. The flow of water beneath the oil is assumed two dimensional (horizontal and vertical) and perpendicular to the boom. We look for steady solutions and assume the oil is so viscous that the fluid velocity within the oil is zero. We are able to calculate what shape the oilslick will form and under which circumstances the boom will be successful (that is, no oil escapes under the boom) based on the predicted depth of the slick at the boom.

We discuss general, time-dependent, linear systems of second-order ordinary differential equations. A study is made of the similarities and discrepancies between the inverse problem of Lagrangian mechanics on the one hand, and the search for linear dynamical symmetries on the other hand.

The problem of passing from an L∞ function to a Wiener-Hopf factorization is considered. It is shown that a small L∞ perturbation which does not change the factorization indices will lead to small Lp (1 < p < ∞) perturbations in the Wiener-Hopf factors, but can lead to large L∞ perturbations, unless the derivatives are controlled during the perturbation.

It is well known that n-process, n-commodity (or square), models of productive single-product industries have positive solutions to their price and quantity systems if the rates of profit and growth lie in appropriate non-negative intervals. On the other hand, negative prices and quantities can occur in formal solutions of models of square, productive, multiple-product industries even when the rates of profit and growth are less than their respective maximum positive values. It is shown in this paper that these differences can be attributed to the presence in joint production of dominance, in either row or column versions. Results on positive solutions to the price (respectively, quantity) system are derived in terms of the absence of column (respectively, row) dominance of the net output matrix. As the concepts of row and column dominance are defined in terms of linear inequalities, the basic mathematical results to be applied are theorems of the alternative.