Recent developments in structural sensitivity analysis

Recent developments are reviewed in two major areas of structural sensitivity analysis: sensitivity of static and transient response; and sensitivity of vibration and buckling eigenproblems. Recent developments from the standpoint of computational cost, accuracy, and ease of implementation are presented. In the area of static response, current interest is focused on sensitivity to shape variation and sensitivity of nonlinear response. Two general approaches are used for computing sensitivities: differentiation of the continuum equations followed by discretization, and the reverse approach of discretization followed by differentiation. It is shown that the choice of methods has important accuracy and implementation implications. In the area of eigenproblem sensitivity, there is a great deal of interest and significant progress in sensitivity of problems with repeated eigenvalues. In addition to reviewing recent contributions in this area, the paper raises the issue of differentiability and continuity associated with the occurrence of repeated eigenvalues

Recent advances in the evolution of interfaces: thermodynamics, upscaling, and universality

We consider the evolution of interfaces in binary mixtures permeating strongly heterogeneous systems such as porous media. To this end, we first review available thermodynamic formulations for binary mixtures based on \emph{general reversible-irreversible couplings} and the associated mathematical attempts to formulate a \emph{non-equilibrium variational principle} in which these non-equilibrium couplings can be identified as minimizers. Based on this, we investigate two microscopic binary mixture formulations fully resolving heterogeneous/perforated domains: (a) a flux-driven immiscible fluid formulation without fluid flow; (b) a momentum-driven formulation for quasi-static and incompressible velocity fields. In both cases we state two novel, reliably upscaled equations for binary mixtures/multiphase fluids in strongly heterogeneous systems by systematically taking thermodynamic features such as free energies into account as well as the system's heterogeneity defined on the microscale such as geometry and materials (e.g. wetting properties). In the context of (a), we unravel a \emph{universality} with respect to the coarsening rate due to its independence of the system's heterogeneity, i.e. the well-known ${\cal O}(t^{1/3})$-behaviour for homogeneous systems holds also for perforated domains. Finally, the versatility of phase field equations and their \emph{thermodynamic foundation} relying on free energies, make the collected recent developments here highly promising for scientific, engineering and industrial applications for which we provide an example for lithium batteries

Recent developments in monolithic integration of InGaAsP/InP optoelectronic devices

Monolithically integrated optoelectronic circuits combine optical devices such as light sources (injection lasers and light emitting diodes) and optical detectors with solid-state semiconductor devices such as field effect transistors, bipolar transistors, and others on a single semiconductor crystal. Here we review some of the integrated circuits that have been realized and discuss the laser structures suited for integration with emphasis on the InGaAsP/InP material system. Some results of high frequency modulation and performance of integrated devices are discussed

K-12 Mathematics: What Should Students Learn and When Should They Learn it?

The conference was held at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Conference Center on February 5-6, 2007 and Organized by the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum. The conference was also webcast and archived sessions are available at: http://cltnet.org/cltnet/misc/csmcmath07/In the fall of 2006 several influential national groups (Achieve, American Statistical Association, College Board, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) developed and released documents that recommended curriculum standards or focal points for K-12 mathematics. In response, the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC) organized several meetings of representatives of each group to discuss the nature of their work and possible collaboration. As a result of those meetings, the groups agreed to cosponsor a national conference to highlight the recommendations and to engage “users” of standards (state and district curriculum specialists, textbook and assessment publishers, K-12 district and teacher leaders, and representatives from higher education and business) in discussions about implications for their work.This report is based on the work of the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum, supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI-0333879. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

Recent Developments in Smart Healthcare

Medicine is undergoing a sector-wide transformation thanks to the advances in computing and networking technologies. Healthcare is changing from reactive and hospital-centered to preventive and personalized, from disease focused to well-being centered. In essence, the healthcare systems, as well as fundamental medicine research, are becoming smarter. We anticipate significant improvements in areas ranging from molecular genomics and proteomics to decision support for healthcare professionals through big data analytics, to support behavior changes through technology-enabled self-management, and social and motivational support. Furthermore, with smart technologies, healthcare delivery could also be made more efficient, higher quality, and lower cost. In this special issue, we received a total 45 submissions and accepted 19 outstanding papers that roughly span across several interesting topics on smart healthcare, including public health, health information technology (Health IT), and smart medicine

Optimization in Telecommunication Networks

Network design and network synthesis have been the classical optimization problems intelecommunication for a long time. In the recent past, there have been many technologicaldevelopments such as digitization of information, optical networks, internet, and wirelessnetworks. These developments have led to a series of new optimization problems. Thismanuscript gives an overview of the developments in solving both classical and moderntelecom optimization problems.We start with a short historical overview of the technological developments. Then,the classical (still actual) network design and synthesis problems are described with anemphasis on the latest developments on modelling and solving them. Classical results suchas Menger’s disjoint paths theorem, and Ford-Fulkerson’s max-flow-min-cut theorem, butalso Gomory-Hu trees and the Okamura-Seymour cut-condition, will be related to themodels described. Finally, we describe recent optimization problems such as routing andwavelength assignment, and grooming in optical networks.operations research and management science;

Abstract Acceleration in Linear relation analysis (extended version)

Linear relation analysis is a classical abstract interpretation based on an over-approximation of reachable numerical states of a program by convex polyhedra. Since it works with a lattice of infinite height, it makes use of a widening operator to enforce the convergence of fixed point computations. Abstract acceleration is a method that computes the precise abstract effect of loops wherever possible and uses widening in the general case. Thus, it improves both the precision and the efficiency of the analysis. This research report gives a comprehensive tutorial on abstract acceleration: its origins in Presburger-based acceleration including new insights w.r.t. the linear accelerability of linear transformations, methods for simple and nested loops, recent extensions, tools and applications, and a detailed discussion of related methods and future perspectives. This is the long version of a paper under submission