In the shape from shading problem of computer vision one attempts to recover the three-dimensional shape of an object or landscape from the shading on a single image. Under the assumptions that the surface is dusty, distant, and illuminated only from above, the problem reduces to that of solving the eikonal equation |Du|=f on a domain in ${ℝ}^2$. Despite various existence and uniqueness theorems for smooth solutions, we show that this problem is unstable, which is catastrophic for general numerical algorithms. ...

In the following text for a discrete finite nonempty set $K$ and a self-map $\varphi :X\to X$ we investigate interaction between different entropies of generalized shift ${\sigma }_{\varphi }:K^X\to K^X$, ${\left(x_{\alpha }\right)}_{\alpha \in X}\mapsto {\left(x_{\varphi \left(\alpha \right)}\right)}_{\alpha \in X}$ and cellularities of some Alexandroff topologies on $X$.

We call a topological space $\kappa$-compact if every subset of size $\kappa$ has a complete accumulation point in it. Let $\Phi (\mu ,\kappa ,\lambda )$ denote the following statement: $\mu <\kappa <\lambda =cf\left(\lambda \right)$ and there is $\{S_{\xi }:\xi <\lambda \}\subset {\left[\kappa \right]}^{\mu }$ such that $\left|\right\{\xi :|S_{\xi }\cap A|=\mu \left\}\right|<\lambda$ whenever $A\in {\left[\kappa \right]}^{<\kappa }$. We show that if $\Phi (\mu ,\kappa ,\lambda )$ holds and the space $X$ is both $\mu$-compact and $\lambda$-compact then $X$ is $\kappa$-compact as well. Moreover, from PCF theory we deduce $\Phi (cf\left(\kappa \right),\kappa ,{\kappa }^{+})$ for every singular cardinal $\kappa$. As a corollary we get that a linearly Lindelöf and ${\aleph }_{\omega }$-compact space is uncountably compact, that is $\kappa$-compact for all uncountable cardinals $\kappa$.

Given two topologies, $T_1$ and $T_2$, on the same set X, the intersection topologywith respect to $T_1$ and $T_2$ is the topology with basis $U_1\cap U_2:U_1\in T_1,U_2\in T_2$. Equivalently, T is the join of $T_1$ and $T_2$ in the lattice of topologies on the set X. Following the work of Reed concerning intersection topologies with respect to the real line and the countable ordinals, Kunen made an extensive investigation of normality, perfectness and ${\omega }_1$-compactness in this class of topologies. We demonstrate that the majority of his results generalise...

Let $𝒵\left(ℛ\right)$ be the set of zero divisor elements of a commutative ring $R$ with identity and $ℳ$ be the space of minimal prime ideals of $R$ with Zariski topology. An ideal $I$ of $R$ is called strongly dense ideal or briefly $sd$-ideal if $I\subseteq 𝒵\left(ℛ\right)$ and $I$ is contained in no minimal prime ideal. We denote by $R_K\left(ℳ\right)$, the set of all $a\in R$ for which $\overline{D\left(a\right)}=\overline{ℳ\setminus V\left(a\right)}$ is compact. We show that $R$ has property $\left(A\right)$ and $ℳ$ is compact if and only if $R$ has no $sd$-ideal. It is proved that $R_K\left(ℳ\right)$ is an essential ideal (resp., $sd$-ideal) if and only if $ℳ$ is an almost locally compact...

A space $X$ is called $\mu$-compact by M. Mandelker if the intersection of all free maximal ideals of $C\left(X\right)$ coincides with the ring $C_K\left(X\right)$ of all functions in $C\left(X\right)$ with compact support. In this paper we introduce $\phi$-compact and ${\phi }^{\text{'}}$-compact spaces and we show that a space is $\mu$-compact if and only if it is both $\phi$-compact and ${\phi }^{\text{'}}$-compact. We also establish that every space $X$ admits a $\phi$-compactification and a ${\phi }^{\text{'}}$-compactification. Examples and counterexamples are given.