An initial-boundary value problem for a time-fractional diffusion equation is discretized in space, using continuous piecewise-linear finite elements on a domain with a re-entrant corner. Known error bounds for the case of a convex domain break down, because the associated Poisson equation is no longer $H^{2}$-regular. In particular, the method is no longer second-order accurate if quasi-uniform triangulations are used. We prove that a suitable local mesh refinement about the re-entrant corner restores second-order convergence. In this way, we generalize known results for the classical heat equation.

This paper presents three boundary meshless methods for solving problems of steady-state and transient heat conduction in nonlinear functionally graded materials (FGMs). The three methods are, respectively, the method of fundamental solution (MFS), the boundary knot method (BKM), and the collocation Trefftz method (CTM) in conjunction with Kirchhoff transformation and various variable transformations. In the analysis, Laplace transform technique is employed to handle the time variable in transient heat conduction problem and the Stehfest numerical Laplace inversion is applied to retrieve the corresponding time-dependent solutions. The proposed MFS, BKM and CTM are mathematically simple, easy-to-programming, meshless, highly accurate and integration-free. Three numerical examples of steady state and transient heat conduction in nonlinear FGMs are considered, and the results are compared with those from meshless local boundary integral equation method (LBIEM) and analytical solutions to demonstrate the efficiency of the present schemes.

We show that, under a condition called minimality, if the Stokes matrix of a connection with a pole of order two and no ramification gives rise, when added to its adjoint, to a positive semidefinite Hermitian form, then the associated integrable twistor structure (or TERP structure, or noncommutative Hodge structure) is pure and polarized.

In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to solve the velocity and temperature fields in the thermal boundary layer flow over a semi-infinite flat plate. Both the flow and heat transfer solutions are calculated accurately by the Laplace Adomian decomposition method, Padé approximant and the optimal design concept. The Laplace Adomian decomposition method (LADM) is a combination of the numerical Laplace transform algorithm with the Adomian decomposition method (ADM). A hybrid method of the LADM combined with the Padé approximant, named the LADM-Padé approximant technique, is introduced to solve the thermal boundary layer problems directly without any small parameter assumptions, linearizatons or transformations of the boundary value problems to a pair of initial value problems. The LADM-Padé approximant solutions here in are given to show the accuracy in comparison with different method solutions.

Recently, Wang's premium principle (Wang, 1995, 1996) has been discussed by many authors. Considerable attention has been given to the conditions under which Wang's premium principle can be reduced to the standard deviation premium principle. In this paper, we have got two results on this problem. One is that the natural set is a location-scale family if Wang's premium principle can be reduced to the SD premium principle for all surjective distortions. The other is that the natural set is a location-scale family for all power distortions.

A proof is given of the Euler-Maclaurin sum formula, on a Banach space of differentiable vector-valued functions of bounded exponential growth, using the Laplace transformation. Some related summation formulae are proved by the same methods. Properties of the standard summation operator are proved, namely spectral properties and boundedness, continuity and differentiability results.