Decay estimates for applications of Razumikhin-type theorems (Q1295048)

In engineering, ``practical stability'' is sometimes expressed by the decay rate of transients. For ODEs with delays there exist apparently only two ways to estimate it: Lyapunov `characteristic numbers' and \(V\)-functionals. Both methods are usually local, and provide merely the `terminal' rate. The authors propose a slight improvement of the Razumikhin estimates. The validity conditions are very strict, but it is claimed nevertheless that the improvement is satisfactory for many engineering problems.