The interaction of a surface wave of angular frequency ω with a deeply submerged, vertical open-mouthed, circular duct of radius a is considered. The resulting boundary- value problem is solved by the Wiener-Hopf technique. The pressure-amplification factor (the ratio of the complex amplitude of the pressure in the depths of the duct to that of the incident wave in the plane of the mouth) is determined in closed form as a function of the dimensionless wave number K = ω2a/g.

Optimal strategies are obtained for two-player games with an alternating staek doubling option. A complete two-parameter analysis is provided for games that must end within two moves, and a recursive procedure then enables a solution for games of any number of moves. Examples are given of relevance to extureme end games in backgammon.

Finite difference schemes for some two point boundary value problems are analysed. It is found that for schemes defined on nonuniform grids, the order of the local truncation error does not fully reflect the rate of convergence of the numerical approximation obtained. Numerical results are presented that indicate that this is also the case for higher dimensional problems.

A sphere theorem for non-axisymmetric Stokes flow of a viscous fluid of viscosity μe past a fluid sphere of viscosity μi is stated and proved. The existing sphere theorems in Stokes flow follow as special cases from the present theorem. It is observed that the expression for drag on the fluid sphere is a linear combination of rigid and shear-free drags.

The properties of static spherically symmetric black holes, which carry electric and magnetic charges, and which are coupled to the dilaton in the presence of a cosmological constant, A, are reviewed.

The behaviour of duopolists is considered within a framework that allows for flexibility of the adopted strategy against the rival. In a difficult external climate, a firm may concentrate on its own profit, whereas in a more favourable external climate, it may adopt a more aggressive attitude towards the rival. The strategy considered in this paper permits this flexible approach. The market functions are kept general to allow the widest interpretation of the results.

A model for the combustion of a porous medium is considered for an infinite slab. The case of ignition by an initial temperature distribution is considered first. The influence of the initial data and parameters on the solution is inferred from the solution of a related ordinary differential equation. The case of ignition by heating on one side of the slab is then considered in the same manner.

Let u be a random signal with realisations in an infinite-dimensional vector space X and υ an associated observable random signal with realisations in a finite-dimensional subspace Y ⊆ X. We seek a pointwise-best estimate of u using a bounded linear filter on the observed data vector υ. When x is a finite-dimensional Euclidean space and the covariance matrix for υ is nonsingular, it is known that the best estimate û of u is given by a standard matrix expression prescribing a linear mean-square filter. For the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space problem we show that the matrix expression must be replaced by an analogous but more general expression using bounded linear operators. The extension procedure depends directly on the theory of the Bochner integral and on the construction of appropriate HilbertSchmidt operators. An extended example is given.

This paper gives a theorem by which it is possible to derive in an easy way a local approximation theorem and an inverse function theorem. The latter theorems are not new. The main advantage of our paper is in giving a relatively short route to these results.

A number of Kuhn-Tucker type sufficient optimality criteria for a class of variational problems under weaker invexity assumptions are presented. As an application of these optimality results, various Mond-Weir type duality results are proved under a variety of generalised invexity assumptions. These results generalise many well-known duality results of variational problems and also give a dynamic analogue of certain corresponding (static) results relating to duality with generalised invexity in mathematical programming.

Extending earlier duality results for multiobjective programs, this paper defines dual problems for convex and generalised convex multiobjective programs without requiring a constraint qualification. The duals provide multiobjective extensions of the classical duals of Wolfe and Schechter and some of the more recent duals of Mond and Weir.

In the paper we give sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution for a Darboux-Goursat optimization problem with a cost functional depending on the number of switchings of a control and the rapidity of its changes. An application is given to a gas absorption problem.

In this paper, the procedure of the clinical measurement of blood pressure is modelled by the application of a uniform pressure band to a long, homogeneous, isotropic cylinder. The deformations are assumed to be infinitesimal, and transform methods are used to analyse the resulting equations. The inversion of the resulting transforms is carried out numerically. It is shown that, in spite of the fairly crude assumptions of the model, the actual load on the artery may be markedly different from that applied to the surface, leading to inaccuracies in the measured blood pressure. The parameter of importance is shown to be the ratio of pressure band width to arm diameter.

This is a short précis of a presentation on some of the recent advances in the area of extrapolation quadrature; given at David Elliott's 65th birthday conference in Hobart in February 1997.

The flow induced when fluid is withdrawn through a line sink from a layered fluid in a homogeneous, vertically confined porous medium is studied. A nonlinear integral equation is derived and solved numerically. For a given sink location, the shape of the interface can be determined for various values of the flow rate. The results are compared with exact solutions obtained using hodograph methods in a special case. It is found that the cusped and coning shapes of the interface can be accurately obtained for the sink situated at different depths in the fluid and the volume of flow into the sink per unit of time.