Asymptotic Behaviors of Hankelians, Whose Entries Involve Regularly- or Rapidly-Varying Functions, as the Variable Tends to +∞. Part I

The rich literature concerning “asymptotic behavior of Hankel determinants” concerns the behavior, as the order n tends to ∞, of Hankel determinants whose entries are numbers, e.g., with a combinatorial interest or arising as values of special classes of functions. Such determinants are numbers depending on n, playing roles in number theory, combinatorics, random matrices and the like;and mathematicians in the involved fields have been interested in their asymptotic behaviors as n goes to ∞, as previously mentioned, with no single exception to the author’s knowledge. The study carried on in the present paper treats an altogether different situation as suggested by the specification in the title “as the variable tends to +∞”. We deal with those types of Hankel determinants (purposely called Hankelians) which are special cases of Wronskians and, continuing our work on the asymptotics of Wronskians, we study the asymptotic behaviors of n-order Hankelians, whose entries involve either regularly- or rapidly-varying functions, when the variable tends to +∞. As in the study of Wronskians, the treatment of this case also needs the whole apparatus of the theory of higher-order types of asymptotic variation, but the most demanding results are not automatic corollaries of the general theory. In fact, in the study of generic Wronskians (study motivated by applications to asymptotic expansions), the entries were required to belong to one of the classes of “higher-order regular or rapid variation”;on the contrary, in the case of Hankelians, we are confronted with functions whose logarithms are either “regularly- or rapidly-varying functions”, roughly classifiable as “ultrarapidly-varying functions”, and the study requires both special devices and a number of preliminary lemmas about products and linear combinations of functions in the mentioned classes.

Impact of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in patients with renal function impairment

AIMTo investigate the role of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in evaluating patients with renal function impairment (RFI) showing: (1) acute renal failure (ARF) of suspicious vascular origin; or (2) suspicious renal lesions.METHODSWe retrospectively evaluated patients addressed to CEUS over an eight years period to rule-out vascular causes of ARF (first group of 50 subjects) or assess previously found suspicious renal lesions (second group of 41 subjects with acute or chronic RFI). After preliminary grey-scale and color Doppler investigation, each kidney was investigated individually with CEUS, using 1.2-2.4 mL of a sulfur hexafluoride-filled microbubble contrast agent. Image analysis was performed in consensus by two readers who reviewed digital clips of CEUS. We calculated the detection rate of vascular abnormalities in the first group and performed descriptive statistics of imaging findings for the second group.RESULTSIn the first group, CEUS detected renal infarction or cortical ischemia in 18/50 patients (36%; 95%CI: 23.3-50.9) and 1/50 patients (2%; 95%CI: 0.1-12), respectively. The detection rate of infarction was significantly higher (P = 0.0002; McNemar test) compared to color Doppler ultrasonography (10%). No vascular causes of ARF were identified in the remaining 31/50 patients (62%). In the second group, CEUS detected 41 lesions on 39 patients, allowing differentiation between solid lesions (21/41; 51.2%) vs complex cysts (20/41; 48.8%), and properly addressing 15/39 patients to intervention when feasible based on clinical conditions (surgery and cryoablation in 13 and 2 cases, respectively). Cysts were categorized Bosniak II, IIF, III and IV in 8, 5, 4 and 3 cases, respectively. In the remaining two patients, CEUS found 1 pseudolesion and 1 subcapsular hematoma.CONCLUSIONCEUS showed high detection rate of renal perfusion abnormalities in patients with ARF, influencing the management of patients with acute or chronic RFI and renal masses throughout their proper characterization.

The Factorizational Theory of Finite Asymptotic Expansions in the Real Domain: A Survey of the Main Results

After studying finite asymptotic expansions in real powers, we have developed a general theory for expansions of type (*) ,x → x0 where the ordered n-tuple forms an asymptotic scale at x0 , i.e. as x → x0, 1 ≤ i ≤ n – 1, and is practically assumed to be an extended complete Chebyshev system on a one-sided neighborhood of x o. As in previous papers by the author concerning polynomial, real-power and two-term theory, the locution “factorizational theory” refers to the special approach based on various types of factorizations of a differential operator associated to . Moreover, the guiding thread of our theory is the property of formal differentiation and we aim at characterizing some n-tuples of asymptotic expansions formed by (*) and n -1 expansions obtained by formal applications of suitable linear differential operators of orders 1,2,…,n-1. Some considerations lead to restrict the attention to two sets of operators naturally associated to “canonical factorizations”. This gives rise to conjectures whose proofs build an analytic theory of finite asymptotic expansions in the real domain which, though not elementary, parallels the familiar results about Taylor’s formula. One of the results states that to each scale of the type under consideration it remains associated an important class of functions (namely that of generalized convex functions) enjoying the property that the expansion(*), if valid, is automatically formally differentiable n-1 times in two special senses.

Analytic Theory of Finite Asymptotic Expansions in the Real Domain. Part II-A: The Factorizational Theory for Chebyshev Asymptotic Scales

This paper, divided into three parts (Part II-A, Part II-B and Part II-C), contains the detailed factorizational theory of asymptotic expansions of type (?)?, , , where the asymptotic scale?, , is assumed to be an extended complete Chebyshev system on a one-sided neighborhood of . It follows two pre-viously published papers: the first, labelled as Part I, contains the complete (elementary but non-trivial) theory for;the second is a survey highlighting only the main results without proofs. All the material appearing in §2 of the survey is here reproduced in an expanded form, as it contains all the preliminary formulas necessary to understand and prove the results. The remaining part of the survey—especially the heuristical considerations and consequent conjectures in §3—may serve as a good introduction to the complete theory.

Analytic Theory of Finite Asymptotic Expansions in the Real Domain. Part II-B: Solutions of Differential Inequalities and Asymptotic Admissibility of Standard Derivatives

Part II-B of our work continues the factorizational theory of asymptotic expansions of type (*) , , where the asymptotic scale , , is assumed to be an extended complete Chebyshev system on a one-sided neighborhood of x0. The main result states that to each scale of this type it remains as-sociated an important class of functions (namely that of generalized convex functions) enjoying the property that the expansion (*), if valid, is automatically formally differentiable n ? 1 times in the two special senses characterized in Part II-A. A second result shows that formal applications of ordinary derivatives to an asymptotic expansion are rarely admissible and that they may also yield skew results even for scales of powers.

Complements to the Theory of Higher-Order Types of Asymptotic Variation for Differentiable Functions

The purpose of this paper is to add some complements to the general theory of higher-order types of asymptotic variation developed in two previous papers so as to complete our elementary (but not too much!) theory in view of applications to the theory of finite asymptotic expansions in the real domain, the asymptotic study of ordinary differential equations and the like. The main results concern: 1) a detailed study of the types of asymptotic variation of an infinite series so extending the results known for the sole power series;2) the type of asymptotic variation of a Wronskian completing the many already-published results on the asymptotic behaviors of Wronskians;3) a comparison between the two main standard approaches to the concept of “type of asymptotic variation”: via an asymptotic differential equation or an asymptotic functional equation;4) a discussion about the simple concept of logarithmic variation making explicit and completing the results which, in the literature, are hidden in a quite-complicated general theory.

The Theory of Higher-Order Types of Asymptotic Variation for Differentiable Functions. Part II: Algebraic Operations and Types of Exponential Variation

In this second part, we thoroughly examine the types of higher-order asymptotic variation of a function obtained by all possible basic algebraic operations on higher-order varying functions. The pertinent proofs are somewhat demanding except when all the involved functions are regularly varying. Next, we give an exposition of three types of exponential variation with an exhaustive list of various asymptotic functional equations satisfied by these functions and detailed results concerning operations on them. Simple applications to integrals of a product and asymptotic behavior of sums are given. The paper concludes with applications of higher-order regular, rapid or exponential variation to asymptotic expansions for an expression of type f(x+r(x)).

The Theory of Higher-Order Types of Asymptotic Variation for Differentiable Functions. Part I: Higher-Order Regular, Smooth and Rapid Variation

Motivated by a general theory of finite asymptotic expansions in the real domain for functions f of one real variable, a theory developed in a previous series of papers, we present a detailed survey on the classes of higher-order asymptotically-varying functions where “asymptotically” stands for one of the adverbs “regularly, smoothly, rapidly, exponentially”. For order 1 the theory of regularly-varying functions (with a minimum of regularity such as measurability) is well established and well developed whereas for higher orders involving differentiable functions we encounter different approaches in the literature not linked together, and the cases of rapid or exponential variation, even of order 1, are not systrematically treated. In this semi-expository paper we systematize much scattered matter concerning the pertinent theory of such classes of functions hopefully being of help to those who need these results for various applications. The present Part I contains the higher-order theory for regular, smooth and rapid variation.

Analytic Theory of Finite Asymptotic Expansions in the Real Domain. Part II-C: Constructive Algorithms for Canonical Factorizations and a Special Class of Asymptotic Scales

This part II-C of our work completes the factorizational theory of asymptotic expansions in the real domain. Here we present two algorithms for constructing canonical factorizations of a disconjugate operator starting from a basis of its kernel which forms a Chebyshev asymptotic scale at an endpoint. These algorithms arise quite naturally in our asymptotic context and prove very simple in special cases and/or for scales with a small numbers of terms. All the results in the three Parts of this work are well illustrated by a class of asymptotic scales featuring interesting properties. Examples and counterexamples complete the exposition.

The Role of Asymptotic Mean in the Geometric Theory of Asymptotic Expansions in the Real Domain

We call “asymptotic mean” (at +∞) of a real-valued function the number, supposed to exist, , and highlight its role in the geometric theory of asymptotic expansions in the real domain of type (*) where the comparison functions , forming an asymptotic scale at +∞, belong to one of the three classes having a definite “type of variation” at +∞, slow, regular or rapid. For regularly varying comparison functions we can characterize the existence of an asymptotic expansion (*) by the nice property that a certain quantity F(t) has an asymptotic mean at +∞. This quantity is defined via a linear differential operator in f and admits of a remarkable geometric interpretation as it measures the ordinate of the point wherein that special curve , which has a contact of order n - 1 with the graph of f at the generic point t, intersects a fixed vertical line, say x = T. Sufficient or necessary conditions hold true for the other two classes. In this article we give results for two types of expansions already studied in our current development of a general theory of asymptotic expansions in the real domain, namely polynomial and two-term expansions.

Operations with Higher-Order Types of Asymptotic Variation: Filling Some Gaps

In this paper we exhibit some results concerning operations with higher-order types of asymptotic variation, results lacking in the general theory developed in previous papers, namely: 1) we show to what extent the standard elementary factorization of a regularly-varying function holds true for higher-order variation;2) we exhibit an important class of higher-order regularly-varying functions requiring no restrictions on the indexes when performing multiplication;3) we get non-obvious results on the types of higher-order variation for linear combinations. In addition, partial results are obtained concerning the type of higher-order variation of the inverse of a regularly-varying function whose index belongs to a set of “exceptional” values.