Approximate fixed point sequence for a finite family of asymptotically pseudocontractive mappings

Let E be a real Banach space and K be a nonempty, closed, convex, and bounded subset of E. Let T_i:K→K, i=1,2,…,N, be N uniformly L-Lipschitzian, uniformly asymptotically regular with sequences {ε_n}, and asymptotically pseudocontractive mappings with sequences , where {ε_n} and , i=1,2,…,N, satisfy certain mild conditions. Let a sequence {x_n} be generated from x₁K by

for all integers n1, where T_n=T_n(modN), {u_n} be a sequence in K, and {λ_n}, {θ_n} and {μ_n} are three real sequences in [0,1] satisfying appropriate conditions; then x_n−T_lx_n→0 as n→∞ for each l{1,2,…,N}.     

Positive periodic solutions of second-order nonlinear differential systems with two parameters

By employing the Deimling fixed point index theory, we consider a class of second-order nonlinear differential systems with two parameters . We show that there exist three nonempty subsets of : Γ, Δ₁ and Δ₂ such that and the system has at least two positive periodic solutions for (λ,μ)Δ₁, one positive periodic solution for (λ,μ)Γ and no positive periodic solutions for (λ,μ)Δ₂. Meanwhile, we find two straight lines L₁ and L₂ such that Γ lies between L₁ and L₂.     

Elementary approximation algorithms for prize collecting Steiner tree problems

This paper deals with approximation algorithms for the prize collecting generalized Steiner forest problem, defined as follows. The input is an undirected graph G=(V,E), a collection T={T₁,…,T_k}, each a subset of V of size at least 2, a weight function , and a penalty function . The goal is to find a forest F that minimizes the cost of the edges of F plus the penalties paid for subsets T_i whose vertices are not all connected by F. Our main result is a -approximation for the prize collecting generalized Steiner forest problem, where n2 is the number of vertices in the graph. This obviously implies the same approximation for the special case called the prize collecting Steiner forest problem (all subsets T_i are of size 2). The approximation algorithm is obtained by applying the local ratio method, and is much simpler than the best known combinatorial algorithm for this problem.Our approach gives a -approximation for the prize collecting Steiner tree problem (all subsets T_i are of size 2 and there is some root vertex r that belongs to all of them). This latter algorithm is in fact the local ratio version of the primal-dual algorithm of Goemans and Williamson [M.X. Goemans, D.P. Williamson, A general approximation technique for constrained forest problems, SIAM Journal on Computing 24 (2) (April 1995) 296–317]. Another special case of our main algorithm is Bar-Yehuda's local ratio -approximation for the generalized Steiner forest problem (all the penalties are infinity) [R. Bar-Yehuda, One for the price of two: a unified approach for approximating covering problems, Algorithmica 27 (2) (June 2000) 131–144]. Thus, an important contribution of this paper is in providing a natural generalization of the framework presented by Goemans and Williamson, and later by Bar-Yehuda.     

Kernel nonnegative matrix factorization for spectral EEG feature extraction

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) seeks a decomposition of a nonnegative matrix X0 into a product of two nonnegative factor matrices U0 and V0, such that a discrepancy between X and UV is minimized. Assuming U=XW in the decomposition (for W0), kernel NMF (KNMF) is easily derived in the framework of least squares optimization. In this paper we make use of KNMF to extract discriminative spectral features from the time–frequency representation of electroencephalogram (EEG) data, which is an important task in EEG classification. Especially when KNMF with linear kernel is used, spectral features are easily computed by a matrix multiplication, while in the standard NMF multiplicative update should be performed repeatedly with the other factor matrix fixed, or the pseudo-inverse of a matrix is required. Moreover in KNMF with linear kernel, one can easily perform feature selection or data selection, because of its sparsity nature. Experiments on two EEG datasets in brain computer interface (BCI) competition indicate the useful behavior of our proposed methods.     

A sufficient condition for pancyclic graphs

In 2005, Rahman and Kaykobad proved that if G is a connected graph of order n such that d(x)+d(y)+d(x,y)n+1 for each pair x, y of distinct nonadjacent vertices in G, where d(x,y) is the length of a shortest path between x and y in G, then G has a Hamiltonian path [Inform. Process. Lett. 94 (2005) 37–41]. In 2006 Li proved that if G is a 2-connected graph of order n3 such that d(x)+d(y)+d(x,y)n+2 for each pair x,y of nonadjacent vertices in G, then G is pancyclic or G=K_n/2,n/2 where n4 is an even integer [Inform. Process. Lett. 98 (2006) 159–161]. In this work we prove that if G is a 2-connected graph of order n such that d(x)+d(y)+d(x,y)n+1 for all pairs x, y of distinct nonadjacent vertices in G, then G is pancyclic or G belongs to one of four specified families of graphs.     

Robustness of exponential stability of a class of stochastic functional differential equations with infinite delay

We regard the stochastic functional differential equation with infinite delay as the result of the effects of stochastic perturbation to the deterministic functional differential equation , where is defined by x_t(θ)=x(t+θ),θ(−∞,0]. We assume that the deterministic system with infinite delay is exponentially stable. In this paper, we shall characterize how much the stochastic perturbation can bear such that the corresponding stochastic functional differential system still remains exponentially stable.     

Generating fuzzy rules from training instances for fuzzy classification systems

In recent years, many methods have been proposed to generate fuzzy rules from training instances for handling the Iris data classification problem. In this paper, we present a new method to generate fuzzy rules from training instances for dealing with the Iris data classification problem based on the attribute threshold value α, the classification threshold value β and the level threshold value γ, where α  [0, 1], β  [0, 1] and γ  [0, 1]. The proposed method gets a higher average classification accuracy rate than the existing methods.     

On systems of word equations with simple loop sets

Consider the infinite system S of word equations

For each , let T_k be the subsystem of S given by i{k,k+1,k+2}. We prove two properties of the above system.

(1) Let k≥1. If φ is a solution of T_k such that primitive roots of are of equal length, as well as primitive roots of , then φ is a solution of the whole S.

(2) If n=1 then, for any k≥2, a solution φ of T_k is also a solution of S.

Elements of small norm in Shanks’ cubic extensions of imaginary quadratic fields

Let be an imaginary quadratic number field with ring of integers Z_k and let k(α) be the cubic extension of k generated by the polynomial f_t(x)=x³−(t−1)x²−(t+2)x−1 with tZ_k. In the present paper we characterize all elements γZ_k[α] with norms satisfying |N_k(α)/k|≤|2t+1| for |t|≥14. This generalizes a corresponding result by Lemmermeyer and Pethő for Shanks’ cubic fields over the rationals.     

Effect of numerical integration on meshless methods

In this paper, we present the effect of numerical integration on meshless methods with shape functions that reproduce polynomials of degree k1. The meshless method was used on a second order Neumann problem and we derived an estimate for the energy norm of the error between the exact solution and the approximate solution from the meshless method under the presence of numerical integration. This estimate was obtained under the assumption that the numerical integration scheme satisfied a form of Green’s formula. We also indicated how to obtain numerical integration schemes satisfying this property.     

Stabilization of some fractional delay systems of neutral type

In this note, we give new stability tests which enable one to fully characterize the H_∞-stability of systems with transfer function , where h>0 and p,q,r are real polynomials in the variable s^μ for 0<μ<1.As an application of this, in the case r(s)=1 and degp=degq=1, families of H_∞-stabilizing controllers are given and a complete parametrization of all H_∞-stabilizing controllers is obtained when .     

-admissibility of the right-shift semigroup on

It is shown that the right-shift semigroup on does not satisfy the weighted Weiss conjecture for α(0,1). In other words, α-admissibility of scalar valued observation operators cannot always be characterised by a simple resolvent growth condition. This result is in contrast to the unweighted case, where 0-admissibility can be characterised by a simple growth bound. The result is proved by providing a link between discrete and continuous α-admissibility and then translating a counterexample for the unilateral shift on to continuous time systems.     

Martingale families and dimension in P

We introduce a new measure notion on small complexity classes (called F-measure), based on martingale families, that gets rid of some drawbacks of previous measure notions: it can be used to define dimension because martingale families can make money on all strings, and it yields random sequences with an equal frequency of 0’s and 1’s. On larger complexity classes ( and above), F-measure is equivalent to Lutz resource-bounded measure. As applications to F-measure, we answer a question raised in [E. Allender, M. Strauss, Measure on small complexity classes, with application for BPP, in: Proc. of the 35th Ann. IEEE Symp. on Found. of Comp. Sci., 1994, pp. 807–818] by improving their result to: for almost every language A decidable in subexponential time, . We show that almost all languages in  do not have small non-uniform complexity. We compare F-measure to previous notions and prove that martingale families are strictly stronger than Γ-measure [E. Allender, M. Strauss, Measure on small complexity classes, with application for BPP, in: Proc. of the 35th Ann. IEEE Symp. on Found. of Comp. Sci., 1994, pp. 807–818], we also discuss the limitations of martingale families concerning finite unions. We observe that all classes closed under polynomial many-one reductions have measure zero in  iff they have measure zero in . We use martingale families to introduce a natural generalization of Lutz resource-bounded dimension [J.H. Lutz, Dimension in complexity classes, in: Proceedings of the 15th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, 2000, pp. 158–169] on , which meets the intuition behind Lutz’s notion. We show that -dimension lies between finite-state dimension and dimension on . We prove an analogue of a Theorem of Eggleston in , i.e. the class of languages whose characteristic sequence contains 1’s with frequency α, has dimension the Shannon entropy of α in .     

-Admissible control elements for diagonal semigroups on -spaces

For linear systems described by , where A is a diagonal operator on the state space l^r for some 1r<∞ and bl^r, we develop necessary and sufficient conditions for b to be p-admissible. This extends results by Ho, Russell and Weiss to the case r≠2.     

Wireless network design via 3-decompositions

We consider some network design problems with applications for wireless networks. The input for these problems is a metric space (X,d) and a finite subset UX of terminals. In the Steiner Tree with Minimum Number of Steiner Points (STMSP) problem, the goal is to find a minimum size set SX−U of points so that the unit-disc graph of S+U is connected. Let Δ be the smallest integer so that for any finite VX for which the unit-disc graph is connected, this graph contains a spanning tree with maximum degree Δ. The best known approximation ratio for STMSP was Δ−1 [I.I. Măndoiu, A.Z. Zelikovsky, A note on the MST heuristic for bounded edge-length Steiner trees with minimum number of Steiner points, Information Processing Letters 75 (4) (2000) 165–167]. We improve this ratio to (Δ+1)/2+1+ε.In the Minimum Power Spanning Tree (MPST) problem, V=X is finite, and the goal is to find a “range assignment” on the nodes so that the edge set contains a spanning tree, and ∑_vVp(v) is minimized. We consider a particular case {0,1}-MPST of MPST when the distances are in {0,1}; here the goal is to find a minimum size set SV of “active” nodes so that the graph (V,E₀+E₁(S)) is connected, where , and E₁(S) is the set the edges in with both endpoints in S. We will show that the (5/3+ε)-approximation scheme for MPST of [E. Althaus, G. Calinescu, I. Măndoiu, S. Prasad, N. Tchervenski, A. Zelikovsky, Power efficient range assignment for symmetric connectivity in static ad hoc wireless networks, Wireless Networks 12 (3) (2006) 287–299] achieves a ratio 3/2 for {0,1}-distances. This answers an open question posed in [E. Lloyd, R. Liu, S. Ravi, Approximating the minimum number of maximum power users in ad hoc networks, Mobile Networks and Applications 11 (2006) 129–142].     

Nonnegative matrices with prescribed extremal singular values

We consider the problem of constructing nonnegative matrices with prescribed extremal singular values. In particular, given 2n−1 real numbers and , we construct an n×n nonnegative bidiagonal matrix B and an n×n nonnegative semi-bordered diagonal matrix C, such that and are, respectively, the minimal and the maximal singular values of certain submatrices B_j and C_j of B and C, respectively. By using a singular value perturbation result, we also construct an n×n nonnegative matrix with prescribed singular values σ₁≥≥σ_n.     

A note on Rooted Survivable Networks

The (undirected) Rooted Survivable Network Design (Rooted SND) problem is: given a complete graph on node set V with edge-costs, a root sV, and (node-)connectivity requirements , find a minimum cost subgraph G that contains r(t) internally-disjoint st-paths for all tT. For large values of k=max_tTr(t) Rooted SND is at least as hard to approximate as Directed Steiner Tree [Y. Lando, Z. Nutov, Inapproximability of survivable networks, Theoret. Comput. Sci. 410 (21–23) (2009) 2122–2125]. For Rooted SND, [J. Chuzhoy, S. Khanna, Algorithms for single-source vertex-connectivity, in: FOCS, 2008, pp. 105–114] gave recently an approximation algorithm with ratio O(k²logn). Independently, and using different techniques, we obtained at the same time a simpler primal–dual algorithm with the same ratio.     

First-principles study of ground-state properties and phase stability of vanadium nitrides

Using a series of density functional electronic structure total energy calculations, we have systematically studied the ground-state properties and phase stability of vanadium nitrides. Comparison of enthalpy of formation shows that V ₂N is equally stable (polymorphic) in , and Fe₂C phases within a few meV. Formation enthalpy of the various phases considered for perfect stoichiometric V N_1.0 shows that it has enhanced stability in hexagonal WC and NiAs structures in relation to NaCl-type δ-phase. The TiAs phase of VN has nearly same energy as NaCl structure. Comparison of energetics of -type , for x=0 and 0.3333 and of , for x=0, 0.0625, 0.125 and 0.25 shows that vacancies on the nitrogen sublattice lowers the formation enthalpy in relation to respective stoichiometric phases which is in agreement with experiments, as bulk vanadium nitrides are known to be generally non-stoichiometric. The calculated dilute heat of solution for the interstitial nitrogen is found to be in good agreement with experimental values and shows that nitrogen prefers to occupy the octahedral sites in bcc vanadium. The α^′-FeN and martensite structures, considered for the metastable phases of vanadium nitrides, have higher formation enthalpy in relation to equilibrium phases. Analysis of electronic density of states of V ₂N shows that the low energy , and Fe₂C phases are characterized by broad V 3d-N 2p and V 3d bonding bands. Density of states of VN shows that in the low energy WC and NiAs phases some of the antibonding states are made empty, leading to a minimum near the Fermi level. For and , density of states shows that vacancies on the nitrogen sublattice introduce additional filled states in the 3d band below Fermi level enabling enhanced bonding. Comparison between bulk moduli and atomic volumes for the various phases of vanadium nitrides shows that higher bulk moduli are dominated by increased V–N bonds combined with low atomic volumes.     

An iterative algorithm for solving a pair of matrix equations over generalized centro-symmetric matrices

A matrix is said to be a symmetric orthogonal matrix if . A matrix is said to be generalized centro-symmetric (generalized central anti-symmetric) with respect to P, if A=PAP (A=−PAP). The generalized centro-symmetric matrices have wide applications in information theory, linear estimate theory and numerical analysis. In this paper, we propose a new iterative algorithm to compute a generalized centro-symmetric solution of the linear matrix equations . We show, when the matrix equations are consistent over generalized centro-symmetric matrix Y, for any initial generalized centro-symmetric matrix Y₁, the sequence {Y_k} generated by the introduced algorithm converges to a generalized centro-symmetric solution of matrix equations . The least Frobenius norm generalized centro-symmetric solution can be derived when a special initial generalized centro-symmetric matrix is chosen. Furthermore, the optimal approximation generalized centro-symmetric solution to a given generalized centro-symmetric matrix can be derived. Several numerical examples are given to show the efficiency of the presented method.     

A 3.4713-approximation algorithm for the capacitated multicast tree routing problem

Given an underlying communication network represented as an edge-weighted graph G=(V,E), a source node sV, a set of destination nodes DV, and a capacity k which is a positive integer, the capacitated multicast tree routing problem asks for a minimum cost routing scheme for source s to send data to all destination nodes, under the constraint that in each routing tree at most k destination nodes are allowed to receive the data copies. The cost of the routing scheme is the sum of the costs of all individual routing trees therein. Improving on our previous approximation algorithm for the problem, we present a new algorithm which achieves a worst case performance ratio of , where ρ denotes the best known approximation ratio for the Steiner minimum tree problem. Since ρ is about 1.55 at the writing of the paper, the ratio achieved by our new algorithm is less than 3.4713. In comparison, the previously best ratio was .