We show that, if f : M2×2 → R is rank-one convex on the hyperboloid is the set of 2 × 2 real symmetric matrices, then f can be approximated by quasi-convex functions on M2×2 uniformly on compact subsets of . Equivalently, every gradient Young measure supported on a compact subset of is a laminate.

Let Ω ⊂ RN be a bounded domain. We consider the nonlinear problem and prove that the existence of positive solutions of the above nonlinear problem is closely related to the existence of non-negative solutions of the following linear problem: .

In particular, if p > (N + 2)/(N − 2), then the existence of positive solutions of nonlinear problem is equivalent to the existence of non-negative solutions of the linear problem (for more details, we refer to theorems 1.2 and 1.3 in § 1 of this paper).

For a scalar Lotka–Volterra-type delay equation ẋ(t) = b(t)x(t)[1 − L(xt)], where L: C([−r, 0];R) → R is a bounded linear operator and b a positive continuous function, sufficient conditions are established for the boundedness of positive solutions and for the global stability of the positive equilibrium, when it exists. Special attention is given to the global behaviour of solutions for the case of L a positive linear operator. The approach used for this situation is applied to address the global asymptotic stability of delayed logistic models in the more general form ẋ(t) = b(t)x(t)[a(t) − L(t, xt)], with L(t, ·) being linear and positive.

Starting from an age-structured model, we derive a partial differential equation satisfied by the total number of mature adult members of a population, on an infinite one-dimensional domain. The formulation involves a distribution of possible ages of maturation and uses a probability density function on which ecologically realistic assumptions are made. It is found that the existence and value of a positive equilibrium solution depends on the mean maturation delay. When no positive equilibrium exists, we prove global attractivity of the zero solution. For a particular ecologically reasonable choice of the distribution function, we show that travelling fronts exist connecting the zero equilibrium with the positive one provided the mean maturation delay is sufficiently small, and the dependence of the front's propagation speed on the mean delay is discussed.

Several comparison results are obtained for solutions to linear elliptic and parabolic equations with a singular potential. Solutions to these equations are singular in many cases, and our results roughly say that they all have comparable singularities, provided that they belong to an appropriate space. We formulate the hypothesis on the potential in terms of an inequality, which in the case of the well-known inverse-square potential, is a consequence of an improvement of Hardy's inequality due to Vázquez and Zuazua.

For certain Lie subalgebras L of associative algebras Q, we characterize the multi-additive skew-symmetric maps f : Ln → Q, which are covariant under the action of L.

Elastic effects can have a pronounced effect on the phase-separation process in solids. The classical Ginzburg—Landau energy can be modified to account for such elastic interactions. The evolution of the system is then governed by diffusion equations for the concentrations of the alloy components and by a quasi-static equilibrium for the mechanical part. The resulting system of equations is elliptic-parabolic and can be understood as a generalization of the Cahn—Hilliard equation. In this paper we give a derivation of the system and prove an existence and uniqueness result for it.

A new characterization of the Dunford–Pettis property in terms of the extensions of multilinear operators to the biduals is obtained. For the first time, multilinear characterizations of the reciprocal Dunford–Pettis property and Pełczyński's property (V) are also found. Polynomial and holomorphic versions of these properties are given as well.

We prove localization estimates for general 2mth-order quasilinear parabolic equations with boundary data blowing up in finite time, as t → T−. The analysis is based on energy estimates obtained from a system of functional inequalities expressing a version of Saint-Venant's principle from the theory of elasticity. We consider a special class of parabolic operators including those having fixed orders of algebraic homogenuity p > 0. This class includes the second-order heat equation and linear 2mth-order parabolic equations (p = 1), as well as many other higher-order quasilinear ones with p ≠ 1. Such homogeneous equations can be invariant under a group of scaling transformations, but the corresponding least-localized regional blow-up regimes are not group invariant and exhibit typical exponential singularities ~ e(T−t)−γ → ∞ as t → T−, with the optimal constant γ = 1/[m(p + 1) − 1] > 0. For some particular equations, we study the asymptotic blow-up behaviour described by perturbed first-order Hamilton–Jacobi equations, which shows that general estimates of exponential type are sharp.

Uniform asymptotic expansions are obtained for the associated Legendre functions and , and the Ferrers functions and , as the order μ → ∞. The approximations are uniformly valid for 0 ≤ ν + ½ ≤ μ(1 − δ), where δ ∈ (0, 1) is fixed, x ∈ (−1, 1) in the real-variable case and Re z ≥ 0 in the complex-variable case. Explicit error bounds are available for all approximations. In the complex-variable case, expansions are obtained by an application of two existing general asymptotic theories to the associated Legendre differential equation: the first case (in which ν is fixed) applies to regions containing an isolated simple pole; and the second case (in which 0 ≤ ν + ½ ≤ μ(1 − δ)) applies to regions containing a coalescing turning point and double pole. In both cases, the expansions involve modified Bessel functions. In the real-variable case (in which 0 ≤ ν + ½ ≤ μ(1 − δ)), asymptotic expansions of Liouville–Green type are obtained, which involve elementary functions.

We describe products of arbitrary L-, R- and H-classes with the set of idempotents of full transformation semigroups.

Let P be an operator of Dirac type on a compact Riemannian manifold with smooth boundary. We impose spectral boundary conditions and study the asymptotics of the heat trace of the associated operator of Laplace type.

We study the homogenization of ferromagnetic equations with periodic coefficients in space dimension 2. The obtained nonlinear homogenized law can only be written using a two-scale framework, which couples microscopic and macroscopic scales. It also involves corrector terms, at the microscopic scale, in the form of pseudo-differential operators. We prove the L2 two-scale strong convergence in the laminar case (one-dimensional periodicity).

There is a large catalogue of decompositions of conditioned superprocesses in terms of an ‘immortal backbone’ or ‘skeleton’ along the branches of which mass is constantly immigrated. We add to this with a study of the (infinite-variance) (1 + β)-superprocess, conditioned on survival until some fixed time T. As one would expect, we see a Poisson number of immortal trees (conditioned on there being at least one), along which mass (conditioned to die before time T) is immigrated. However, here we see a new source of immigration. Not only is mass immigrated along the branches of the immortal trees, but also there is an extra burst of immigration whenever the immortal tree branches. Moreover, the rate of immigration along the branches is no longer deterministic. In the limit as T → ∞, the immortal trees degenerate to the Evans immortal particle and the immigration (of unconditioned mass) along the particle is dictated by a stable subordinator.

We provide a simplified proof of the following well-known theorem. The projection to Rn + 1of an n-dimensional rectifiable Legendrian subset of Rn+1 × Snis C2-rectifiable. Such a result generalizes the following simple fact. Let M be a hypersurface whose Gauss map has graph of class C1. Then M is of class C2.

In this work we consider the non-autonomous problem Δu = a(x)um in the unit ball B ⊂ RN, with the boundary condition u|∂B = +∞, and m > 0. Assuming that a is a continuous radial function with a(x) ˜ C0 dist(x, ∂B)−γ as dist(x, ∂B) → 0, for some C0 > 0, γ > 0, we completely determine the issues of existence, multiplicity and behaviour near the boundary for radial positive solutions, in terms of the values of m and γ. The case 0 < m ≤ 1, as well as estimates for solutions to the linear problem m = 1, are a significant part of our results.

Let Ω be an open bounded subset of Rn and f a continuous function on Ω̄ satisfying f(x) > 0 for all x ∈ Ω̄. We consider the maximization problem for the integral ∫Ωf(x)u(x)dx over all Lipschitz continuous functions u subject to the Dirichlet boundary condition u = 0 on ∂Ω and to the gradient constraint of the form H(Du(x)) ≤ 1, and prove that the supremum is ‘achieved’ by the viscosity solution of Ĥ(Du(x)) = 1 in Ω and u = 0 on ∂Ω, where Ĥ denotes the convex envelope of H. This result is applied to an asymptotic problem, as p → ∞, for quasi-minimizers of the integral An asymptotic problem as k → ∞ for inf is also considered, where the infimum is taken all over and the set K is given by {ξ | H(ξ) ≤ 1}.

We investigate a non-autonomous ratio-dependent predator–prey system, whose autonomous versions have been analysed by several authors. For the general non-autonomous case, we address such properties as positive invariance, permanence, non-persistence and the globally asymptotic stability for the system. For the periodic and almost-periodic cases, we obtain conditions for existence, uniqueness and stability of a positive periodic solution, and a positive almost-periodic solution, respectively.

A sequence of integers S is called Glasner if, given any ε > 0 and any infinite subset A of T = R/Z, and given y in T, we can find an integer n ∈ S such that there is an element of {nx : x ∈ A} whose distance to y is not greater than ε. In this paper we show that if a sequence of integers is uniformly distributed in the Bohr compactification of the integers, then it is also Glasner. The theorem is proved in a quantitative form.

We consider two types of equations on a cylindrical domain Ω × (0, ∞), where Ω is a bounded domain in RN, N ≥ 2. The first type is a semilinear damped wave equation, in which the unbounded direction of Ω × (0, ∞) is reserved for time t. The second type is an elliptic equation with a singled-out unbounded variable t. In both cases, we consider solutions that are defined and bounded on Ω × (0, ∞) and satisfy a Dirichlet boundary condition on ∂Ω × (0, ∞). We show that, for some nonlinearities, the equations have bounded solutions that do not stabilize to any single function φ: Ω → R, as t → ∞; rather, they approach a continuum of such functions. This happens despite the presence of damping in the equation that forces the t derivative of bounded solutions to converge to 0 as t → ∞. Our results contrast with known stabilization properties of solutions of such equations in the case N = 1.