In the paper [J.-S. Chen, S. Pan, A family of NCP-functions and a descent method for the nonlinear complementarity problem, Computational Optimization and Applications, 40 (2008) 389404], the authors proposed a derivative-free descent algorithm for nonlinear complementarity problems (NCPs) by the generalized FischerBurmeister merit function: p (a, b)= 1 2 [(a, b) p(a+ b)] 2, and observed that the choice of the parameter p has a great influence on the numerical performance of the algorithm. In this paper, we analyze the phenomenon theoretically for a derivative-free descent algorithm which is based on a penalized form of p and uses a different direction from that of Chen and Pan. More specifically, we show that the algorithm proposed is globally convergent and has a locally R-linear convergence rate, and furthermore, its convergence rate will become worse when the parameter p decreases

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The geometry arising from Michelson &amp; Strominger's study of =4<i>B</i> supersymmetric quantum mechanics with superconformal <i>D</i>(2, 1; )-symmetry is a hyperKhler manifold with torsion (HKT) together with a special homothety. It is shown that different parameters are related via changes in potentials for the HKT target spaces. For 0, 1, we describe how each such HKT manifold <i>M</i> ^<i>4m</i> is derived from a space <i>N</i> ^<i>4m4</i> which is quaternionic Khler with torsion and carries an Abelian instanton.

The construction of local reduced-order models via multiscale basis functions has been an area of active research. In this paper, we propose online multiscale basis functions which are constructed using the offline space and the current residual. Online multiscale basis functions are constructed adaptively in some selected regions based on our error indicators. We derive an error estimator which shows that one needs to have an offline space with certain properties to guarantee that additional online multiscale basis function will decrease the error. This error decrease is independent of physical parameters, such as the contrast and multiple scales in the problem. The offline spaces are constructed using Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Methods (GMsFEM). We show that if one chooses a sufficient number of offline basis functions, one can guarantee that additional online multiscale basis functions will reduce

Two measures of sensitivity to initial conditions in nonlinear time series are proposed. The notions give some insight into the relationship between the Fisher information in statistical estimation and initial-value sensitivity in dynamical systems. By using the locally polynomial regression, we develop nonparametric estimates for a conditional density function, its square root and its partial derivatives. The proposed procedures are innovative and of interests in their own right. They are also used to estimate the sensitive measures. The asymptotic normality of the proposed estimators have been proved. We also propose a simple and intuitively appealing method for choosing the bandwidths. Two simulated examples are used as illustrations.