MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS IN SIMULATION

Editor-in-Chief
R. Beauwens Universit Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Av. F.D. Roosevelt, CP 165/84, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

Editor Emeritus
R. Vichnevetsky Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA

Senior Editors
(Computational Finance and Risk Analysis) M. McAleer University of Western Australia School of Economics and Commerce Crawley, WA 6009, Australia (Dynamical systems) E. Mosekilde Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark (Bio/Geomechanics) J. Nedoma Institute of Computer Science Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Pod vodarenskou vezi 2, 182 07 Prague, Czech Republic (Numerical ODEs) S.P. Norsett Norwegian University of Science & Technology Department of Mathematical Sciences Ajfred Getz vei 1, 7491 Trondheim, Norway (Economic Modelling) L. Oxley University of Canterbury, Christchurch Mail Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand (Mechanical Systems Robotics) A. Preumont Universit Libre de Bruxelles 50 Av. F.D. Roosevelt CP 165/42, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium (Monte Carlo Methods) K.K. Sabelfeld Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis Stochastics Mohrenstrasse 39,10117 Berlin, Germany (Symbolic Computation) S. Steinberg University of New Mexico Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA (Nonlinear Systems and Wave Propagation) T. Taha University of Georgia Department of Computer Science Athens, GA 30602-7404, USA

Editorial Board
M. Abell Georgian Southern University Statesboro, GA, USA A. Borghese University of Milano Milano, Italy P. Brochet cole Centrale de Lille, F-59651 Villeneuve dAscq, France J. Cao Southeast University Nanjing, China F. Chan Curtin University of Technology Perth, Western Australia C. Chang Department of Applied Economics, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan L. Gardini Universit degli Studi di Urbino Urbino, Italy K. Gustafson University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA B. Hofmann Technische Universitt Chemnitz, Germany L. Jay University of Iowa Iowa City Iowa, USA M. Kirby Utah University Salt Lake City, UT, USA B. Koren Center for Mathematics and Computer Science Amsterdam, The Netherlands P.L. Kunsch Department of Mathematics Belgium C. Lcot Universit de Savoie France M. Mascagni Florida State University Tallahassee, FL, USA M.C. Medeiros Department of Economics Pontical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil K. Meerbergen K.U. Leuven, Belgium D. Negrut University of Wisconsin at Madison Madison, WI, USA L. Oxley University of Canterbury Christchurch, New Zealand J. Respondek Silesian University of Technology Gliwice, Poland G. Richter Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ, USA E. Roanes-Lozano Univ. Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain D. Roose KU Leuven Heverlee-Leuven, Belgium J. Sa da Costa Technical University of Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal R. Serban Xulu Entertainment Milpitas, CA, USA B. Simeon Technische Universitt Mnchen Mnchen, Germany J.M. Sousa Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal R.M. Spitaleri Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, Viale del Policlinico 137, I-00161 Roma, Italy I. Troch Technische Universitt Wien Wien, Austria A. Tura ISIB-CNR, Corso, Stati Uniti, 4, 35127, Padova, Italy S. Tzafestas National Technical University of Athens Athens, Greece J. Vignes Universit Pierre et Marie Curie Paris, France P.A. Whitlock Brooklyn College, NY, USA

Aims: The aim of the Journal is to provide an international forum for the dissemination of up-to-date information in the elds of applied mathematics and computers and to the growing eld of scientic computation in general, in particular (but not exclusively) as they apply to the simulation of systems. Published material ranges from short, concise research papers to more general tutorial articles. MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS IN SIMULATION, published monthly, is the ofcial organ of IMACS, the International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (formerly AICA). This Association, founded in 1955 and legally incorporated in 1956 is a member of FIACC (the Five International Associations Coordinating Committee), together with IFIP, IFAC, IFORS and IMEKO. Topics covered by the journal include mathematical tools in - the foundations of systems modelling, - numerical analysis and the development of algorithms for simulation. They also include considerations about computer hardware for simulation and about special software and compilers. The journal also publishes articles concerned with specic applications of modelling and simulation in science and engineering, with relevant applied mathematics, the general philosophy of systems simulation, and their impact on disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. The journal includes a Book Review section and a News of IMACS section that contains a Calendar of future Conferences/Events and other information about the Association.
2010, IMACS/Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press, Dorchester, UK

doi:10.1016/S0378-4754(10)00238-7