We give precise conditions under which the composition of a norm with a convex function yields a uniformly convex function on a Banach space. Various applications are given to functions of power type. The results are dualized to study uniform smoothness and several examples are provided.

This paper develops a refinement of Lasserre's algorithm for optimizing a polynomial on a basic closed semialgebraic set via semidefinite programming and addresses an open question concerning the duality gap. It is shown that, under certain natural stability assumptions, the problem of optimization on a basic closed set reduces to the compact case.

Formulas for the Clarke subdifferential are always expressed in the form of inclusion. The equality form in these formulas generally requires the functions to be directionally regular. This paper studies the directional regularity of the general class of extended-real-valued functions that are directionally Lipschitzian. Connections with the concept of subdifferential regularity are also established.