If A is a nonsingular matrix such that its inverse is a stochastic matrix, the classic Brouwer fixed point theorem implies that the matrix equation AXA = XAX has a nontrivial solution. An explicit expression of this nontrivial solution is found via the mean ergodic theorem, and fixed point iteration is considered to find a nontrivial solution.

An infinite Bernoulli-Euler beam (representing the “combined rail” consisting of the rail and longitudinal sleeper) mounted on periodic flexible point supports (representing the railpads) has already proven to be a suitable mathematical model for the floating ladder track (FLT), to define its natural vibrations and its forced response due to a moving load. Adopting deliberately conservative parameters for the existing FLT design, we present further results for the response to a steadily (uniformly) moving load when the periodic supports are assumed to be elastic, and then introduce the mass and viscous damping of the periodic supports. Typical support damping significantly moderates the resulting steady deflexion at any load speed, and in particular substantially reduces the magnitude of the resonant response at the critical speed. The linear mathematical analysis is then extended to include the inertia of the load that otherwise moves uniformly along the beam, generating overstability at supercritical speeds – i.e. at load speeds notably above the critical speed predicted for the resonant response when the load inertia is neglected. Neither the resonance nor the overstability should prevent the safe implementation of the FLT design in modern high speed rail systems.

This article analyses temperature data for Seoul based on a well defined daily average temperature (DAT) derived from records dating from 1954 to 2009, and considers related weather derivatives using a previous methodology. The temperature data exhibit some quite distinctive features, compared to other cities that have been considered before. Thus Seoul has: (i) four clear seasons; (ii) a significant seasonal range, with high temperature and humidity in the summer but low temperature and very dry weather in winter; and (iii) cycles of three cold days and four warmer days in winter. Due to these characteristics, seasonal variance and oscillation in Seoul is more apparent in winter and less evident in summer than in the other cities. We construct a deterministic model for the average temperature and then simulate future weather patterns, before pricing various weather derivative options and calculating the market price of risk (MPR).

The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is applied to a constrained linear least-squares problem, where the objective function is a sum of two least-squares terms and there are box constraints. The original problem is decomposed into two easier least-squares subproblems at each iteration, and to speed up the inner iteration we linearize the relevant subproblem whenever it has no known closed-form solution. We prove the convergence of the resulting algorithm, and apply it to solve some image deblurring problems. Its efficiency is demonstrated, in comparison with Newton-type methods.

Borda's mouthpiece consists of a long straight tube projecting into a large vessel, where fluid enters the tube in a free surface flow that tends to become uniform far downstream in the tube. A two-dimensional approximation to this flow under gravity in the upper part of the tube leads to an evaluation of the contraction coefficient, the ratio of the constant depth of the uniform flow to the width of the tube. The analysis also applies to flow under gravity past a sluice gate, if the semi-infinite wall above the channel is rotated to the vertical. The contraction coefficient depends upon the Froude number F, and is generally less than the zero gravity value of 1/2 that is approached as F → ∞.

To understand a genetic regulatory network, two popular mathematical models, Boolean Networks (BNs) and its extension Probabilistic Boolean Networks (PBNs) have been proposed. Here we address the problem of constructing a sparse Probabilistic Boolean Network (PBN) from a prescribed positive stationary distribution. A sparse matrix is more preferable, as it is easier to study and identify the major components and extract the crucial information hidden in a biological network. The captured network construction problem is both ill-posed and computationally challenging. We present a novel method to construct a sparse transition probability matrix from a given stationary distribution. A series of sparse transition probability matrices can be determined once the stationary distribution is given. By controlling the number of nonzero entries in each column of the transition probability matrix, a desirable sparse transition probability matrix in the sense of maximum entropy can be uniquely constructed as a linear combination of the selected sparse transition probability matrices (a set of sparse irreducible matrices). Numerical examples are given to demonstrate both the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method.