This paper solves a class of one-dimensional, dynamic elastoplasticity problems for equations which describe the longitudinal motion of a rod. The initial conditions U(x, 0) are continuous and piecewise linear, the derivative ∂U/∂x(x, 0) having just one jump at x = 0. Both the equations and the initial data are invariant under the scaling Ũ(x, t) = α−1U(αx, αt), where α > 0; hence the term scale-invariant. Both in underlying motivation and in solution, this problem is highly analogous to the Riemann problem from gas dynamics. These ideas are applied to the Sandler–Rubin example of non-unique solutions in dynamic plasticity with a nonassociative flow rule. We introduce an entropy condition that re-establishes uniqueness, but we also exhibit problems regarding existence.

This paper deals with a problem of nondestructive testing for a composite system formed by the connection of a steel beam and a reinforced concrete beam. The small vibrations of the composite beam are described by a differential system where a coupling takes place between longitudinal and bending motions. The motion is governed in space by two second order and two fourth order differential operators, which are coupled in the lower order terms by the shearing, k, and axial, μ, stiffness coefficients of the connection. The coefficients k and μ define the mechanical model of the connection between the steel beam and the concrete beam and contain direct information on the integrity of the system. In this paper we study the inverse problem of determining k and μ by mixed data. The inverse problem is transformed to a variational problem for a cost function which includes boundary measurements of Neumann data and also some interior measurements. By computing the Gateaux derivatives of the functional, an algorithm based on the projected gradient method is proposed for identifying the unknown coefficients. The results of some numerical simulations on real steel-concrete beams are presented and discussed.

We study the effect of stochastic volatility on option prices. In the fast mean-reversion model for stochastic volatility of [5], we show that there is a full asymptotic expansion for the option price, centered at the Black-Scholes price. We show how to callibrate the first two terms in the expansion with the implied volatility surface. We show, however, that this price does not converge in a strong sense to Black-Scholes as the mean-reversion rate increases.

We present a coupled system of elliptic equations describing the steady state of the thermoelectrical behaviour of an aluminium electrolytic cell. The thermal model is a free boundary problem which consists of the heat equation with Joule heating as a source. We neglect the Joule heating in the ledge, and allow for temperature-dependent electrical conductivity. We also formulate a numerical approximation using a finite element method. An iterative algorithm and numerical results are presented. The existence of a weak solution is also proved.

In this paper we examine the movement of hard contact lenses on the eye. In so doing, we take into account hydrodynamic forces underneath the lens, as well as surface tension forces at the lens periphery. This involves solving for the free surface of the tear film away from the lens in order to determine the magnitudes of the pressure and surface tension forces on the lens. The analysis, which assumes quasi-steady motion, is carried out in both two and three dimensions.

Crime is disproportionally concentrated in few areas. Though long established, there remains uncertainty about the reasons for variation in the concentration of similar crime (repeats) or different crime (multiples). Wholly neglected have been composite crimes when more than one crime types coincide as parts of a single event. The research reported here disentangles area crime concentration into repeats, multiple and composite crimes. The results are based on estimated bivariate zero-inflated Poisson regression models with covariance structure which explicitly account for crime rarity and crime concentration. The implications of the results for criminological theorizing and as a possible basis for more equitable police funding are discussed.

In the low-Froude number limit, free-surface gravity waves caused by flow past a submerged obstacle have amplitude that is exponentially small. Consequently, these cannot be represented using an asymptotic series expansion. Previous studies have considered linearized steady flow past a submerged source in infinite-depth fluids, in which exponential asymptotics were used to determine the behaviour of downstream longitudinal and transverse free-surface gravity waves. Here, unsteady flow past a submerged source in an infinite-depth fluid is investigated, with the free surface taken to be initially waveless. The source is taken to be weak, and the flow is linearized about the undisturbed solution. Exponential asymptotics are applied to determine the wave behaviour on the free surface in terms of the two-dimensional plan-view, in order to show how the free surface waves evolve over time and eventually tend to the steady solution.

We study an electrical conduction problem in biological tissues in the radiofrequency range, which is governed by an elliptic equation with memory. We prove the time exponential asymptotic stability of the solution. We provide in this way both a theoretical justification to the complex elliptic problem currently used in electrical impedance tomography and additional information on the structure of the complex coefficients appearing in the elliptic equation. Our approach relies on the fact that the elliptic equation with memory is the homogenisation limit of a sequence of problems for which we prove suitable uniform estimates.

We study radially symmetric stationary points of the functional

where u denotes the density of a fluid confined to a container Ω, W(u) is the course-grain free energy and ε accounts for surface energy. Under the further assumption of small energy, that is

for small ε, we prove existence of precisely two solutions for the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation. Each of these solutions is monotone in the radial direction and converges as ε→0 to one of two possible radially symmetric single interface minimizers of E0. Our main tool is the method of matched asymptotic expansions from which we construct exact solutions.

The paper focuses on the matrix differential equation \[ \dot y(t)=A(t)y(t)+\sum_{j=1}^{m}B_j(t)y(\tau_j(t))+f(t),\quad t\in I=[t_0,\infty)\vspace*{-3pt} \] with continuous matrices $A$, $B_j$, a continuous vector $f$ and continuous delays $\tau_j$ satisfying $\tau_k\circ\tau_l =\tau_l\circ\tau_k$ on $I$ for any pair $\tau_k,\tau_l$. Assuming that the equation \[ \dot y(t)=A(t)y(t)\] is uniformly exponentially stable, we present some asymptotic bounds of solutions $y$ of the considered delay equation. A system of simultaneous Schröder equations is used to formulate these asymptotic bounds.

A drift-diffusion model for charge transport in an organic bulk heterojunction solar cell, formed by conjoined acceptor and donor materials sandwiched between two electrodes, is formulated. The model accounts for (i) bulk photogeneration of excitons, (ii) exciton drift and recombination, (iii) exciton dissociation (into polarons) on the acceptor–donor interface, (iv) polaron recombination, (v) polaron dissociation into a free electron (in the acceptor) and a hole (in the donor), (vi) electron/hole transport and (vii) electron–hole recombination on the acceptor–donor interface. A finite element method is employed to solve the model in a cell with a highly convoluted acceptor/donor interface. The solutions show that, with physically realistic parameters, and in the power generating regime, the solution varies little on the scale of the micro-structure. This motivates us to homogenise over the micro-structure; a process that yields a far simpler one-dimensional effective medium model on the cell scale. The comparison between the solution of the full model and the effective medium (homogenised) model is very favourable for applied voltages less than the built-in voltage (the power generating regime) but breaks down as the applied voltages increases above it. Furthermore, it is noted that the homogenisation technique provides a systematic way to relate effective medium modelling of bulk heterojunctions [19, 25, 36, 37, 42, 59] to a more fundamental approach that explicitly models the full micro-structure [8, 38, 39, 58] and that it allows the parameters in the effective medium model to be derived in terms of the geometry of the micro-structure. Finally, the effective medium model is used to investigate the effects of modifying the micro-structure geometry, of a device with an interdigitated acceptor/donor interface, on its current–voltage curve.

In radio frequency (RF) applications, electric circuits produce signals exhibiting fast oscillations, whereas the amplitude and frequency may change slowly in time. Thus, solving a system of differential algebraic equations (DAEs), which describes the circuit's transient behaviour, becomes inefficient, since the fast rate restricts the step sizes in time. A multivariate model is able to decouple the widely separated time scales of RF signals and provides an alternative approach. Consequently, a system of DAEs changes into a system of multirate partial differential algebraic equations (MPDAEs). The determination of multivariate solutions allows for the exact reconstruction of corresponding time-dependent signals. Hence, an efficient numerical simulation is obtained by exploiting the periodicities in fast time scales. We outline the theory of this multivariate approach with respect to the simulation of amplitude as well as frequency modulated signals. Furthermore, a survey of numerical methods for solving the arising problems of MPDAEs is given.

In the Calculus of Variations, several notions of convexity have emerged, corresponding to different properties of the functionals to be minimized. The relations between these various notions are not yet fully understood. In this context, we present a numerical study of quasiconvexity for some functions of the type f(ξ) = g(|ξ|2, det ξ), where Ξ is a 2×2-matrix. The corresponding global optimization problems are solved using a simulated annealing-like algorithm. The computations strongly indicate that the considered functions are quasiconvex if and only if they are rank-one convex. The relation to Morrey's conjecture, various applications and implementation problems are discussed.

In this paper, we study the regularity of a weak solution for a coupled system derived from a microwave-heating model. The main feature of this model is that electric conductivity in the electromagnetic field is assumed to be temperature dependent. It is shown that the weak solution of the coupled system possesses some regularity under certain conditions. In particular, it is shown that the temperature is Hölder continuous, even if electric conductivity has a jump discontinuity with respect to the temperature change. The main idea in the proof is based on an estimate for a linear degenerate system in Campanato space. As an application, the regularity result for the coupled system is used to derive the necessary condition for an optimal control problem arising in microwave heating processes.

A class of exact mathematical solutions describing distributed regions of uniform vorticity attached to two solid walls meeting at an angle $2\alpha$ is derived. Exterior to the uniform vorticity region the flow is quiescent and irrotational. The mathematical method used is a generalization of ideas original presented in Crowdy [4] combined with elements of conformal mapping theory associated with a differential equation method due to Polubarinova-Kochina traditionally applied in finding the solution to various free boundary problems.

Sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence of positive periodic solutions of a class of neutral delay differential equations of the form \begin{equation*} \left\{\begin{array}{@{}l@{}} {\normalsize N}^{\prime}{\normalsize (t)=N(t)F[t,N(t),N(t-\tau (t,N(t))),N}^{\prime}{\normalsize (t-\gamma (t)),P(t),P(t-\mu (t))]}\\ {\normalsize P}^{\prime}{\normalsize (t)=-}e(t)P{\normalsize (t)+k(t)N(t)+h(t)N(t-\sigma (t))}\end{array}\right. \end{equation*} by using the theory of topological degree. These results extend substantially the existing relevant existence results in the literature. As a demonstration, applying the obtained analysis results to a real complex neutral Lotka-Volterra population model, the existence criterion for positive periodic solutions is easily obtained and an example is used to give an impression of how restrictive these conditions are. Especially, this method is more suitable to state-dependent delay, and which have further applications in many fields.

Generalized two-phase fluid flows in a Hele-Shaw cell are considered. It is assumed that the flow is driven by the fluid pressure gradient and an external potential field, for example, an electric field. Both the pressure field and the external field may have singularities in the flow domain. Therefore, combined action of these two fields brings into existence some new features, such as non-trivial equilibrium shapes of boundaries between the two fluids, which can be studied analytically. Some examples are presented. It is argued, that the approach and results may find some applications in the theory of fluids flow through porous media and microfluidic devices controlled by electric field.

Stability is among the most important concepts in dynamical systems. Local stability is well-studied, whereas determining the ‘global stability’ of a nonlinear system is very challenging. Over the last few decades, many different ideas have been developed to address this issue, primarily driven by concrete applications. In particular, several disciplines suggested a web of concepts under the headline ‘resilience’. Unfortunately, there are many different variants and explanations of resilience, and often, the definitions are left relatively vague, sometimes even deliberately. Yet, to allow for a structural development of a mathematical theory of resilience that can be used across different areas, one has to ensure precise starting definitions and provide a mathematical comparison of different resilience measures. In this work, we provide a systematic review of the most relevant indicators of resilience in the context of continuous dynamical systems, grouped according to their mathematical features. The indicators are also generalised to be applicable to any attractor. These steps are important to ensure a more reliable, quantitatively comparable and reproducible study of resilience in dynamical systems. Furthermore, we also develop a new concept of resilience against certain nonautonomous perturbations to demonstrate how one can naturally extend our framework. All the indicators are finally compared via the analysis of a classic scalar model from population dynamics to show that direct quantitative application-based comparisons are an immediate consequence of a detailed mathematical analysis.

In this work exact upper bounds of the drag force are found for curved plates of fixed total arc-length in flow with a wake, which forms according to the Joukowsky-Roshko-Eppler model. The shapes of maximum drag are determined in an explicit analytical form and can be interpreted as those of ideal parachutes.

The purpose of this paper is to give a pricing analysis for the American option in a jump-diffusion model by PDE arguments. Existence and uniqueness of the solution to the obstacle problem for the associated model is shown in suitable spaces. We also prove the unique existence of the solution of the corresponding free boundary problem. Furthermore, smoothness and monotonicity of the free boundary which is the optimal exercise boundary of the option are deduced.