Singular Higher-Order Complete Vector Bases for Finite Methods

This paper presents new singular curl- and divergence- conforming vector bases that incorporate the edge conditions. Singular bases complete to arbitrarily high order are described in a unified and consistent manner for curved triangular and quadrilateral elements. The higher order basis functions are obtained as the product of lowest order functions and Silvester-Lagrange interpolatory polynomials with specially arranged arrays of interpolation points. The completeness properties are discussed and these bases are proved to be fully compatible with the standard, high-order regular vector bases used in adjacent elements. The curl (divergence) conforming singular bases guarantee tangential (normal) continuity along the edges of the elements allowing for the discontinuity of normal (tangential) components, adequate modeling of the curl (divergence), and removal of spurious modes (solutions). These singular high-order bases should provide more accurate and efficient numerical solutions of both surface integral and differential problems. Sample numerical results confirm the faster convergence of these bases on wedge problems

Ecological Invasion, Roughened Fronts, and a Competitor's Extreme Advance: Integrating Stochastic Spatial-Growth Models

Both community ecology and conservation biology seek further understanding of factors governing the advance of an invasive species. We model biological invasion as an individual-based, stochastic process on a two-dimensional landscape. An ecologically superior invader and a resident species compete for space preemptively. Our general model includes the basic contact process and a variant of the Eden model as special cases. We employ the concept of a "roughened" front to quantify effects of discreteness and stochasticity on invasion; we emphasize the probability distribution of the front-runner's relative position. That is, we analyze the location of the most advanced invader as the extreme deviation about the front's mean position. We find that a class of models with different assumptions about neighborhood interactions exhibit universal characteristics. That is, key features of the invasion dynamics span a class of models, independently of locally detailed demographic rules. Our results integrate theories of invasive spatial growth and generate novel hypotheses linking habitat or landscape size (length of the invading front) to invasion velocity, and to the relative position of the most advanced invader.Comment: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com/content/8528v8563r7u2742