In this paper we introduce an impulsive control model of a rumour process. The spreaders are classified as subscriber spreaders, who receive an initial broadcast of a rumour and start spreading it, and nonsubscriber spreaders who change from being an ignorant to being a spreader after encountering a spreader. There are two consecutive broadcasts. The first starts the rumour process. The objective is to time the second broadcast so that the final proportion of ignorants is minimised. The second broadcast reactivates as spreaders either the subscriber stiflers (Scenario 1) or all individuals who have been spreaders (Scenario 2). It is shown that with either scenario the optimal time for the second broadcast is always when the proportion of spreaders drops to zero.

The high Reynolds number flow past a circular cylinder with a trailing wake region is considered when the wake region is bounded and contains uniform vorticity. The formulation allows only for a single vortex pair trapped behind the cylinder, but calculates solutions over a range of values of vorticity. The separation point and length of the region are determined as outputs. It was found that using this numerical method there is an upper bound on the vorticity for which solutions can be calculated for a given arclength of the cavity. In some cases with shorter cavities, the limiting solutions coincide with the formation of a stagnation point in the outer flow at both separation from the cylinder and reattachment at the end of the cavity.

In several recent papers, a one-sided iterative process for computing positive definite solutions of the nonlinear matrix equation X + A* X−1A = Q, where Q is positive definite, has been studied. In this paper, a two-sided iterative process for the same equation is investigated. The novel idea here is that the two sequences obtained by starting at two different values provide (a) an interval in which the solution is located, that is, Xk ≤ X ≤ Yk for all k and (b) a better stopping criterion. Some properties of solutions are discussed. Sufficient solvability conditions on a matrix A are derived. Moreover, when the matrix A is normal and satisfies an additional condition, the matrix equation has smallest and largest positive definite solutions. Finally, some numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

We investigate the dynamics of a susceptible infected recovered (SIR) epidemic model on small networks with different topologies, as a stepping stone to determining how the structure of a contact network impacts the transmission of infection through a population. For an SIR model on a network of $N$ nodes, there are $3^{N}$ configurations that the network can be in. To simplify the analysis, we group the states together based on the number of nodes in each infection state and the symmetries of the network. We derive analytical expressions for the final epidemic size of an SIR model on small networks composed of three or four nodes with different topological structures. Differential equations which describe the transition of the network between states are also derived and solved numerically to confirm our analysis. A stochastic SIR model is numerically simulated on each of the small networks with the same initial conditions and infection parameters to confirm our results independently. We show that the structure of the network, degree of the initial infectious node, number of initial infectious nodes and the transmission rate all significantly impact the final epidemic size of an SIR model on small networks.

The freezing of water to ice is a classic problem in applied mathematics, involving the solution of a diffusion equation with a moving boundary. However, when the water is salty, the transport of salt rejected by ice introduces some interesting twists to the tale. A number of analytic models for the freezing of water are briefly reviewed, ranging from the famous work by Neumann and Stefan in the 1800s, to the mushy zone models coming out of Cambridge and Oxford since the 1980s. The successes and limitations of these models, and remaining modelling issues, are considered in the case of freezing sea-water in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. A new, simple model which includes turbulent transport of heat and salt between ice and ocean is introduced and solved analytically, in two different cases—one where turbulence is given by a constant friction velocity, and the other where turbulence is buoyancy-driven and hence depends on ice thickness. Salt is found to play an important role, lowering interface temperatures, increasing oceanic heat flux, and slowing ice growth.

This paper is concerned with the initial boundary value problem of a class of nonlinear wave equations and reaction–diffusion equations with several nonlinear source terms of different signs. For the initial boundary value problem of the nonlinear wave equations, we derive a blow up result for certain initial data with arbitrary positive initial energy. For the initial boundary value problem of the nonlinear reaction–diffusion equations, we discuss some probabilities of the existence and nonexistence of global solutions and give some sufficient conditions for the global and nonglobal existence of solutions at high initial energy level by employing the comparison principle and variational methods.

When optical fibres are made by first constructing optical-fibre preforms, the fibre which is pulled from the heated preform is simply a scaled down version of the original preform structure. The expansion coefficient profile α(r) of the preform, which relates directly to the fabrication variables, can be determined from non-destructive optical retardation measurements δ(r) performed on the preform. In addition, the residual elastic stress distributions in a fabricated preform, which can be used to compare different fabrication procedures, have simple definitions as linear functionals of the expansion coefficients α(r). Thus, through the use of optical retardation data, an examination of different manufacturing procedures for preform fabrication is reduced to a problem in non-destructive manufacturing procedures for preform fabrication is reduced to a problem in non-destructive testing and analysis. The underlying numerical problem of evaluating the stres distributions reduces to solving and Abel-type integral equation for α(r), which involves an indeterminacy, followed by the evaluation of linear functionals defined on α(r). It is shown how the known inversion formulae for the Abel-type integral equation can be used formally to reduce the numerical problem of evaluating the radial stress to the evaluation of a linear functional defined on the data δ(r) which bypasses the indeterminacy. When only the radial stress is required, the problem of actually solving the Abel-type integral equation is avoided. Methods for evaluating the non-radial stresses, which avoid the indeterminacy, are also derived.

In this paper we consider a projective connection as defined by the nth-order Adler-Gelfand-Dikii (AGD) operator on the circle. It is well-known that the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation is the archetypal example of a scalar Lax equation defined by a Lax pair of scalar nth-order differential (AGD) operators. In this paper we derive (formally) the KdV equation as an evolution equation of the AGD operator (at least for n ≤ 4) under the action of Vect(S1). The solutions of the AGD operator define an immersion R → RPn−1 in homogeneous coordinates. In this paper we derive the Schwarzian KdV equation as an evolution of the solution curve associated with Δ(n), for n ≤ 4.

This paper gives a numerical method for estimating the Hausdorff-Besicovitch dimension where this differs from the fractal (or capacity or box-counting) dimension. The method has been implemented, and numerical results obtained for the set {1/n | n ∈ N} and the Cantor set. Comments about the practical use of the estimation algorithms are made.

A steady two-dimensional free-surface flow in a channel of finite depth is considered. The channel ends abruptly with a barrier in the form of a vertical wall of finite height. Hence the stream, which is uniform far upstream, is forced to go upward and then falls under the effect of gravity. A configuration is examined where the rising stream splits into two jets, one falling backward and the other forward over the wall, in a fountain-like manner. The backward-going jet is assumed to be removed without disturbing the incident stream. This problem is solved numerically by an integral-equation method. Solutions are obtained for various values of a parameter measuring the fraction of the total incoming flux that goes into the forward jet. The limit where this fraction is one is also examined, the water then all passing over the wall, with a 120° corner stagnation point on the upper free surface.

This paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a Kuhn-Tucker point of a non-smooth vector optimisation problem subject to inequality and equality constraints to be an efficient solution. The main tool we use is an alternative theorem which is quite different to a corresponding result by Xu.

The problem of determining a square integrable function from its modulus and that of its Fourier transform has been considered in an article by Corbett and Hurst ([1]). In this work we point out an error in one of the main results of the cited article concerning the Pauli uniqueness of real states, provide a proof of uniqueness for non-negative states, and present various related examples and discussion of the problem.

Self-heating in packed paniculate that is exothermically reactive is a major cause of fire and explosion in the powder industry. This study is focused on part of the Auckland development of a mathematical model dealing with this hazardous process in industry using milk powder as an example. Milk powder is a primary powdered food product around the world.

An update of the detailed mathematical model is given here, and predictions are made using the model to simulate the basket-heating behaviour of a milk powder in the laboratory (so the model can thus be validated). Basket heating in an oven is a standard laboratory technique for measuring the exothermic reactivity of a solid material.

After a favorable comparison with the laboratory results, several aspects of basket-heating were investigated with a view to further improving the technique. Firstly, the model was used to explore the effect of elevated ambient humidity and initial sample water content upon the heating process in the basket. Secondly, the model was used to explore the cross over phenomenon which is related to a novel procedure for measuring activation energy and exothermicity (that is, the Crossing-Point-Temperature (CPT) method, which is a new version of the basket heating technique). The predictions together with the experimental evidence show that the reaction kinetics obtained using the Heat Release (HR) method (another version of the basket heating technique well published in the literature) may not be correct, especially for those measured at elevated oven temperatures and for larger basket sizes. Thirdly, simulations were performed to illustrate that the CPT phenomenon does not just occur at the center of the basket but also occurs everywhere else in the sample. This can become a significant advantage for further development of the CPT method in terms of reducing experimental duration and improving reproducibility.

In this paper we consider two spectral refinement schemes, elementary and double iteration, for the approximation of eigenelements of a compact operator using a new approximating operator. We show that the new method performs better than the Galerkin, projection and Sloan methods. We obtain precise orders of convergence for the approximation of eigenelements of an integral operator with a smooth kernel using either the orthogonal projection onto a spline space or the interpolatory projection at Gauss points onto a discontinuous piecewise polynomial space. We show that in the double iteration scheme the error for the eigenvalue iterates using the new method is of the order of , where h is the mesh of the partition and k = 0, 1, 2,… denotes the step of the iteration. This order of convergence is to be compared with the orders in the Galerkin and projection methods and in the Sloan method. The error in eigenvector iterates is shown to be of the order of in the new method, in the Galerkin and projection methods and in the Sloan method. Similar improvement is observed in the case of the elementary iteration. We show that these orders of convergence are preserved in the corresponding discrete methods obtained by replacing the integration by a numerical quadrature formula. We illustrate this improvement in the order of convergence by numerical examples.

Defining a spherical Struve function we show that the Struve transform of half integer order, or spherical Struve transform,

where n is a non-negative integer, may under suitable conditions be solved for f(t):

where is the sum of the first n + 1 terms in the asymptotic expansion of φn(x) as x → ∞. The coefficients in the asymptotic expansion are identified as

It is further shown that functions φn (x) which are representable as spherical Struve transforms satisfy n + 1 integral constraints, which in turn allow the construction of many equivalent inversion formulae.

A quasi-trapezoid inequality is derived for double integrals that strengthens considerably existing results. A consonant version of the Grüss inequality is also derived. Applications are made to cubature formulæ and the error variance of a stationary variogram.

This paper considers similarity solutions of the multi-dimensional transport equation for the unsteady flow of two viscous incompressible fluids. We show that in plane, cylindrical and spherical geometries, the flow equation can be reduced to a weakly-coupled system of two first-order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. This occurs when the two phase diffusivity D(θ) satisfies (D/D′)′ = 1/α and the fractional flow function f (θ) satisfies df/dθ = kDn/2, where n is a geometry index (1, 2 or 3), α and k are constants and primes denote differentiation with respect to the water content θ. Solutions are obtained for time dependent flux boundary conditions. Unlike single-phase flow, for two-phase flow with n = 2 or 3, a saturated zone around the injection point will only occur provided the two conditions and f′(1) ≠ 0 are satisfied. The latter condition is important due to the prevalence of functional forms of f (θ) in oil/water flow literature having the property f′(1) = 0.

The local properties of non-linear differential-difference equations are investigated by considering the location of the roots of the eigen-equation derived from the lineraised approximation of the original model. A general linear system incorporating one time delay is considered and local stability results are obtained for cases in which the coefficient matrices satisfy certain assumptions. The results have applications to recent Biological and Economic models incorporating time lags.

This paper presents a numerical investigation of plaque growth in a diseased artery using the two-way fluid–structural interaction (FSI) technique. An axis-asymmetric 45% stenosis model is used as the base model to start the plaque growth approximation. The blood is modelled as a non-Newtonian fluid described by the Casson model. The artery tissue is assumed to be a nonlinear material. The two-way FSI simulation is carried out in a way that mimics the unsteady blood flow through a diseased artery by using a pulsatile flow condition. After each flow velocity cycle, the numerical results are extracted and used to modify the stenosis geometry based upon critical wall shear stress (WSS) values and an accepted relationship between the concentration of low density lipoprotein and WSS. The simulation procedure is repeated until the growth-updated stenosis morphology reaches 79% severity. The behaviour of the flow velocity is analysed at each growth stage, together with the WSS, to determine the change of plaque morphology due to growth. The effects of WSS and pressure on the artery wall at the final stage (79% severity) of the plaque growth model are also compared with results from the authors’ previous work, to demonstrate the importance of the morphology change in plaque growth modelling.

We propose and analyse an alternate approach to a priori error estimates for the semidiscrete Galerkin approximation to a time-dependent parabolic integro-differential equation with nonsmooth initial data. The method is based on energy arguments combined with repeated use of time integration, but without using parabolic-type duality techniques. An optimal $L^2$-error estimate is derived for the semidiscrete approximation when the initial data is in $L^2$. A superconvergence result is obtained and then used to prove a maximum norm estimate for parabolic integro-differential equations defined on a two-dimensional bounded domain.