Reaction–diffusion systems are widely used to model competition in, for example, the scientific fields of biology, chemistry, medicine and industry. It is often not too difficult to establish positive uniform upper bounds on solution components of such systems, but the task of establishing strictly positive uniform lower bounds (when they exist) can be quite troublesome. Conditions for the existence of such lower bounds in Lotka–Volterra competitve models are already well known. A general context for the understanding of these conditions is provided in this paper, by establishing more general permanence criteria (for the nonexplosion and noncollapse to zero of solutions) in the class of diagonally convex competitive reaction–diffusion systems with zero flux Neumann boundary conditions. This class admits most famous competition models as special cases. The asymptotic (large time) behaviour of positive solutions within the bounds of permanence is also considered and it is shown that the methods of proof for asymptotic stability (and hence resilience) normally associated with order-preserving systems (such as comparison arguments) are also applicable, in a slightly generalised form, to competitive systems as long as the competitive interactions are not too strong. The general criteria for permanence obtained here provide a natural method for developing new and easily verifiable permanence conditions for a host of non Lotka–Volterra competition models, as is illustrated by considering three famous special cases. In one of these cases known results are recovered, while in the other two cases new conditions for solution permanence are established.

For a system of semilinear elliptic partial differential equations with a small parameter, denned on a bounded multi-dimensional smooth domain, we show the existence of solutions with internal layers. The high-dimensionality of the domain gives rise to quite interesting an outlook in the analysis, dramatically different from that in one-dimensional settings. Our analysis indicates, in a certain situation, an occurrence of an infinite series of bifurcation phenomena accumulating as the small parameter goes to zero. We also present a related free boundary problem with a possible approach to its resolution.

In this paper, a relationship between the periodic and the Dirichlet boundary value problems for second-order ordinary differential equations with singularities is established. This relationship may be useful in explaining the difference between the nonresonance of singular and nonsingular differential equations. Using this relationship, we give in this paper an existence result of positive periodic solutions to singular differential equations when the singular forces satisfy some strong force condition at the singularity 0 and some linear growth condition at infinity.

Recently, Grabovsky and Milton have studied effective properties of plane polycrystals made of a crystal with a rank-one local compliance tensor and a positive definite ‘weak’ direction. This paper continues their investigation. By using several complementary approaches, it is proved that the effective compliance tensor of such a polycrystal has exactly one weak direction. The new proofs clarify the link of the degenerate polycrystal problem with previously obtained results on the polycrystal properties. Investigation of the phase boundary conditions has allowed us to find the L-closure set of the effective properties of all polycrystals that can be constructed by sequential laminations of the original degenerate crystals. Bounds on the G-closure, i.e. a set of the effective properties of all the polycrystals that can be built from the given set of degenerate crystals, are found. They are given by a polygonal set in the plane of two linear invariants of the effective compliance tensors. The effective moduli of the polycrystals made from crystals with non-definite ‘weak’ directions are also studied.

This paper is concerned with an iterative functional differential equation x(t) = c1x(t) + c2x[2](t) + … cmχ[m](t) + F(t), where x[i](t) is the i-th iterate of the function x(t). By means of Schauder's Fixed Point Theorem, we establish a local existence theorem for smooth solutions which also depend continuously on the forcing function F(t).

Weighted inequalities for certain Hardy-type averaging operators in are shown to be equivalent to weighted inequalities for one-dimensional operators. Known results for the one-dimensional operators are applied to give weight characterisations, with best constants in some cases, in the higher-dimensional setting. Operators considered include averages over all dilations of very general starshaped regions as well as averages over all balls touching the origin. As a consequence, simple weight conditions are given which imply weighted norm inequalities for a class of integral operators with monotone kernels.

Given a certain family ℱ of positive Borel measures and γ ∈ [0, 1), we define a general onesided maximal operator and we study weighted inequalities in Lp,q spaces for these operators. Our results contain, as particular cases, the characterisation of weighted Lorentz norm inequalities for some well-known one-sided maximal operators such as the one-sided Hardy–Littlewood maximal operator associated with a general measure , the one-sided fractional maximal operator and the maximal operator associated with the Cesèro-α averages.

If E is the set of idempotents and G the group of units within a full transformation semigroup ℐx, then EG = GE = ℐx if X is finite. The question of identifying the subsemigroup EG = GE = 〈G∪E〉 in the case where X is infinite leads to an investigation of interrelations among various naturally occurring subsemigroups of ℐX. In the final section it is shown that precisely two additional elements µ, v are needed in order that G∪E∪{µ, v} should generate ℐx.

Consider the diffraction problem for perturbed acoustic propagators with perturbations decreasing slowly at infinity. The propagation speed is discontinuous at the interface of two unbounded media, and the interface may be an arbitrary and smooth surface locally. A Sommerfeld radiation condition is introduced for the acoustic propagator, and is then used to establish the limiting absorption principle and the resolvent estimate at low frequencies for such an operator. Furthermore, we prove the existence of a unique solution to the diffraction problem and the validity of the limiting amplitude principles for the acoustic propagator.

First-order scalar linear delay differential equations with periodic coefficients and constant delays are considered, where the coefficients have a common period and the delays are multiples of this period. A basic asymptotic criterion is given. Moreover, some results on the nonoscillation and on the stability of the trivial solution are obtained. An equation, which is in a sense the characteristic equation, plays an important role in establishing the results of the paper.

We extend Zygmund's Theorem characterising the Bloch functions via a generalised Libera transform and so we answer an open problem formulated by N. Danikas, S. Ruscheweyh and A. Siskakis. Furthermore, we show some differences between the holomorphic Zygmund class and the class of holomorphic functions whose derivatives are of logarithmic growth on the unit disk.

For some singular perturbed Dirichlet and Neumann problems in a bounded smooth domain, we study solutions which have a spike in the interior. We obtain both necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of interior spike solutions. We use, among others, the methods of projections and viscosity solutions, weak convergence of measures and Liapunov–Schmidt reduction.

The existence of a group H as described in the title shows that the statement of Rips's Theorem for finitely generated groups cannot be extended without further complications to infinitely generated groups. The construction as given in this paper uses a careful combinatorial description of the fundamental group of the Hawaiian Earrings and a length function that can be put on a special subgroup. Then the existence of H follows using a theorem of Chiswell, Alperin and Moss.

We consider the singular boundary value problem

We study the existence, uniqueness, regularity and the dependency on parameters of the positive solutions under various assumptions.

In this paper, we prove that mean curvature motion can be regarded as the singular limit of the following model:

where ε > 0 is a small parameter and . This model is related to the Landau–Lifshitz equation of ferromagnetism. Local existence of classical solutions of the Dirichlet problem and global existence of the travelling wave solutions are also obtained.