In this paper, we propose a novel iterative convolution-thresholding method (ICTM) that is applicable to a range of variational models for image segmentation. A variational model usually minimizes an energy functional consisting of a fidelity term and a regularization term. In the ICTM, the interface between two different segment domains is implicitly represented by their characteristic functions. The fidelity term is usually written as a linear functional of the characteristic functions and the regularized term is approximated by a functional of characteristic functions in terms of heat kernel convolution. This allows us to design an iterative convolution-thresholding method to minimize the approximate energy. The method is simple, efficient and enjoys the energy-decaying property. Numerical experiments show that the method is easy to implement, robust and applicable to various image segmentation models.

The convergence to steady state solutions of the Euler equations for weighted compact nonlinear schemes (WCNS) [Deng X. and Zhang H. (2000), J. Comput. Phys. 165, 22-44 and Zhang S., Jiang S and Shu C.-W. (2008), J. Comput. Phys. 227, 7294-7321] is studied through numerical tests. Like most other shock capturing schemes, WCNS also suffers from the problem that the residue can not settle down to machine zero for the computation of the steady state solution which contains shock waves but hangs at the truncation error level. In this paper, the techniques studied in [Zhang S. and Shu. C.-W. (2007), J. Sci. Comput. 31, 273-305 and Zhang S., Jiang S and Shu. C.-W. (2011), J. Sci. Comput. 47, 216-238], to improve the convergence to steady state solutions for WENO schemes, are generalized to the WCNS. Detailed numerical studies in one and two dimensional cases are performed. Numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques when applied to WCNS. The residue of various order WCNS can settle down to machine zero for typical cases while the small post-shock oscillations can be removed.

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In this paper, we discuss high order finite difference weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) schemes, coupled with total variation diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta (RK) temporal integration, for solving the semilinear hyperbolic system of a correlated random walk model describing movement of animals and cells in biology. Since the solutions to this system are non-negative, we discuss a positivity-preserving limiter without compromising accuracy. Analysis is performed to justify the maintanance of third order spatial / temporal accuracy when the limiters are applied to a third order finite difference scheme and third order TVD-RK time discretization for solving this model. Numerical results are also provided to demonstrate these methods up to fifth order accuracy.

In this paper, we develop a three-dimensional parallel solver using the fifth order high-resolution weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) finite difference scheme to perform extensive simulation for three-dimensional gaseousdetonations. A careful study is conducted for the propagation modes of three-dimensional gaseous detonation wave-front structures in a long square duct. The numerical results indicate that, the instability of detonation, overdrive factor, transverse dimension and initial perturbation are the main factors that influence the appearance of spinning detonation.