On the uniqueness of the helicoid and Enneper’s surface in the Lorentz-Minkowski space R31

In this paper we deal with the uniqueness of the Lorentzian helicoid and Enneper’s surface among properly embedded maximal surfaces with lightlike boundary of mirror symmetry in the Lorentz-Minkowski space R3Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología MTM2004-00160Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología MTM2007-61775Junta de Andalucía P06-FQM-01642Junta de Andalucía FQM32

A decomposition procedure based on approximate newton directions

The efficient solution of large-scale linear and nonlinear optimization problems may require exploiting any special structure in them in an efficient manner. We describe and analyze some cases in which this special structure can be used with very little cost to obtain search directions from decomposed subproblems. We also study how to correct these directions using (decomposable) preconditioned conjugate gradient methods to ensure local convergence in all cases. The choice of appropriate preconditioners results in a natural manner from the structure in the problem. Finally, we conduct computational experiments to compare the resulting procedures with direct methods, as well as to study the impact of different preconditioner choices

DOES SERVICE QUALITY MATTER IN MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF WATER UTILITIES?

Quality is a dimension of water services that has been repeatedly omitted in the study of performance of water utilities. In this paper, we make use of Data Envelopment Analysis techniques (DEA) to compute both conventional quantity-based and quality-adjusted indicators of technical efficiency for a sample of Spanish water utilities. The key assumptions are that a lack of quality (bad quality) can be regarded as a bad output, and the existence of a trade-off between quantity and quality. Our main results indicate that quality matters in measuring technical performance, the difference between conventional and quality-adjusted evaluations representing the opportunity cost of maintaining quality. Averages and distribution functions significantly differ between both assessments of performance, although water utilities do not seem to rank differently.water utilities; quality; Data Envelopment Analysis.

Harmonic mappings and conformal minimal immersions of Riemann surfaces into RN

We prove that for any open Riemann surface N, natural number N ≥ 3, non-constant harmonic map h:N→R N−2 and holomorphic 2-form H on N , there exists a weakly complete harmonic map X=(Xj)j=1,…,\scN:N→R\scN with Hopf differential H and (Xj)j=3,…,\scN=h. In particular, there exists a complete conformal minimal immersion Y=(Yj)j=1,…,\scN:N→R\scN such that (Yj)j=3,…,\scN=h . As some consequences of these results (1) there exist complete full non-decomposable minimal surfaces with arbitrary conformal structure and whose generalized Gauss map is non-degenerate and fails to intersect N hyperplanes of CP\scN−1 in general position. (2) There exist complete non-proper embedded minimal surfaces in R\scN, ∀\scN>3.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología MTM2007-61775Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología MTM2007-64504Junta de Andalucía P09-FQM-508

Complete minimal surfaces and harmonic functions

We prove that for any open Riemann surface N and any non constant harmonic function h : N → R, there exists a complete conformal minimal immersion X : N → R3 whose third coordinate function coincides with h. As a consequence, completeminimal surfaceswith arbitrary conformal structure andwhose Gauss map misses two points are constructed.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia MTM2007-61775Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia MTM2007-64504Junta de Andalucía P06-FQM-01642

System dynamics modelling in systems biology and applications in pharmacology

El modelado matemático de sistemas biológicos complejos es uno de los temas clave en la Biología de Sistemas y varios métodos computacionales basados ​​en la simulación computarizada han sido aplicados hasta ahora para determinar el comportamiento de los sistemas no lineales. La Dinamica de Sistemas es una metodología de modelado intuitivo basada en el razonamiento cualitativo por el cual un modelo conceptual se puede describir como un conjunto de relaciones de causa y efecto entre las variables de un sistema. A partir de esta estructura, es posible obtener un conjunto de ecuaciones dinámicas que describan cuantitativamente el comportamiento del sistema. Centrándose en los sistemas farmacológicos, el modelado compartimental a menudo se utiliza para resolver un amplio espectro de problemas relacionados con la distribución de materiales en los sistemas vivos en la investigación, el diagnóstico y la terapia en todo el cuerpo, los órganos y los niveles celulares. En este artículo presentamos la metodología de modelado de Dinámica del Sistema y su aplicación al modelado de un modelo compartimental farmacocinético-farmacodinámico del efecto de profundidad anestésica en pacientes sometidos a intervenciones quirúrgicas, derivando un modelo de simulación en el entorno de simulación orientada a objetos OpenModelica. La Dinamica de Sistemas se puede ver como una herramienta educativa poderosa y fácil de usar y en la enseñanza de Biología de Sistemas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech