A sperner-type theorem

Let P=P ₁×P ₂×...×P _M be the direct product of symmetric chain orders P ₁, P ₂, ..., P _M . Let F be a subset of P containing no l+1 elements which are identical in M–1 components and linearly ordered in the Mth one. Then max |F|cM ^1/2lW(P), where W(P) is the cardinality of the largest level of P, and c is independent of P, M and l. Infinitely many P show that this result is best possible for every M and l apart from the constant factor c.     

Nonparametric Estimations about Species Not Observed in a Random Sample

A brief survey of work done on two long-standing and important problems in statistics is given. In a simple random sample (with replacement) of size n from a population divided into species, if N distinct species are observed, what is the probability that, on the next trial, a species not observed before is discovered? And what is the total number of species not observed? Interesting in many applied areas, these problems have been discussed in a great number of papers. We survey some of the related publications as well as a Bayes-like estimator recently devised by the authors, together with results on the estimation of the distribution of the probability of discovering a new species. Dedicated to the memory of Bruno Forte, mentor and friend to one of us Lecture held by C.C.A. Sastri in the Seminario Matematico e Fisico on May 12, 2003 Received: June, 2004 An erratum to this article is available at .     

On Crossing Numbers of Complete Tripartite and Balanced Complete Multipartite Graphs

The crossing number cr(G) of a graph G is the minimum number of crossings in a drawing of G in the plane with no more than two edges intersecting at any point that is not a vertex. The rectilinear crossing number of G is the minimum number of crossings in a such drawing of G with edges as straight line segments. Zarankiewicz proved in 1952 that . We generalize the upper bound to and prove . We also show that for n large enough, and , with the tighter rectilinear lower bound established through the use of flag algebras. A complete multipartite graph is balanced if the partite sets all have the same cardinality. We study asymptotic behavior of the crossing number of the balanced complete r‐partite graph. Richter and Thomassen proved in 1997 that the limit as of over the maximum number of crossings in a drawing of exists and is at most . We define and show that for a fixed r and the balanced complete r‐partite graph, is an upper bound to the limit superior of the crossing number divided by the maximum number of crossings in a drawing.     

A note on partially balanced ternary designs

Two new methods of constructing a series of partially balanced ternary designs are presented. One from a BIB design and a PBIB design, and the second from a PBIB design alone, obtained by method of differences in both the cases.     

Some bounds for partially balanced block designs

Bounds on eigenvalues of theC-matrix for a partially balanced block (PBB) design are given together with some bounds on the number of blocks. Furthermore, a certain equiblock-sized PBB design is characterized. These results contain, as special cases, the known results for variance-balanced block designs and so on.     

A four-color theorem for periodic tilings

There exist exactly 4044 topological types of 4-colorable tile-4-transitive tilings of the plane. These can be obtained by systematic application of two geometric algorithms, edge-contraction and vertex-truncation, to all tile-3-transitive tilings of the plane.     

On the chernoff-savage theorem for dependent sequences

Summary Given a sequence of ϕ-mixing random variables not necessarily stationary, a Chernoff-Savage theorem for two-sample linear rank statistics is proved using the Pyke-Shorack [5] approach based on weak convergence properties of empirical processes in an extended metric. This result is a generalization of Fears and Mehra [4] in that the stationarity is not required and that the condition imposed on the mixing numbers is substantially relaxed. A similar result is shown to hold for strong mixing sequences under slightly stronger conditions on the mixing numbers. Research partially supported by the National Research Council of Canada under Grant No. A-3954.     

Constructing Hierarchical Set Systems

In this note, it is shown that by applying ranking procedures to data that allow, for any three objects a₁, a₂, b in a collection X of objects of interest, to make consistent decisions about which of the two objects a₁ or a₂ is more similar to b, a family of cluster systems can be constructed that start with the associated Apresjan Hierarchy and keep growing until, for k = #X–1, the full set of all subsets of X is reached. Various ideas regarding canonical modifications of the similarity values so that these cluster systems contain as many clusters as possible for small values of k (and in particular for k := 0) and/or are rooted at a specific element in X, possible applications, e.g. concerning (i) the comparison of distinct dissimilarity data defined on the same set X or (ii) diversity optimization, and new tasks arising in ranking statistics are also discussed.Received November 15, 2003     

A bivariate interval censorship model for partnership formation

We consider a statistical problem of estimating a bivariate age distribution of newly formed partnership. The study is motivated by a type of data that consist of uncensored, right-censored, left-censored, interval-censored and missing observations in the coordinates of a bivariate random vector. A model is proposed for formulating such type of data. A feasible algorithm to estimate the generalized MLE (GMLE) of the bivariate distribution function is also proposed. We establish asymptotic properties for the GMLE under a discrete assumption on the underlying distributions and apply the method to the data set.     

Extensions of system signatures to dependent lifetimes: Explicit expressions and interpretations

The concept of system signature was introduced by Samaniego for systems whose components have i.i.d. lifetimes. We consider its extension to the continuous dependent case and give an explicit expression for this extension as a difference of weighted means of the structure function values. We then derive a formula for the computation of the coefficients of these weighted means in the special case of independent continuous lifetimes. Finally, we interpret this extended concept of signature through a natural least squares approximation problem.     

Nonexistence of complete sufficient statistics for stationaryk-state Markov chains,k≧3

It is shown that there does not exist a complete sufficient statistic for the class of allk-state Markov chains,k≧3. Whenk=2 there is a complete sufficient statistic.     

The polytopal association scheme

Summary The polytopal association scheme for PBIB designs is introduced and studied utilizing the concept of clustering of treatments.     

A subclass of bayes linear estimators that are minimax

In the linear regression model with ellipsoidal parameter constraints, the problem of estimating the unknown parameter vector is studied. A well-described subclass of Bayes linear estimators is proposed in the paper. It is shown that for each member of this subclass, a generalized quadratic risk function exists so that the estimator is minimax. Moreover, some of the proposed Bayes linear estimators are admissible with respect to all possible generalized quadratic risks. Also, a necessary and sufficient condition is given to ensure that the considered Bayes linear estimator improves the least squares estimator over the whole ellipsoid whatever generalized risk function is chosen.     

Balanced ternary designs with block size three,any Λ and anyR

A balanced ternary design onV elements is a collection ofB blocks (which are multisets) of sizeK, such that each element occurs 0, 1 or 2 times per block andR times altogether, and such that each unordered pair of distinct elements occurs times. (For example, in the blockxxyyz, the pairxy is said to occur four times and the pairsxz, yz twice each.) It is straightforward to show that each element has to occur singly in a constant number of blocks, say ₁, and so each element also occurs twice in a constant number of blocks, say ₂, whereR= ₁+2 ₂. If ₂=0 the design is a balanced incomplete block design (binary design), so we assume ₂>0, andK<2V (corresponding to incompleteness in the binary case). Necessarily >1 if ₂>0 (andK>2).In 1980 and 1982 the author gave necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of balanced ternary designs withK=3, =2 and ₂=1, 2 or 3. In this paper work on the existence of balanced ternary designs with block size three is concluded, in that necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a balanced ternary design withK=3, any >1 and any ₂ are given.     

Constructions for resolvable and related designs

Methods are given for constructing block designs, using resolvable designs. These constructions yield methods for generating resolvable and affine designs and also affine designs with affine duals. The latter are transversal designs or semi-regular group divisible designs with ₁=0 whose duals are also designs of the same type and parameters. The paper is a survey of some old and some recent constructions.     

Characterizations of Arnold and Strauss’ and related bivariate exponential models

Characterizations of probability distributions is a topic of great popularity in applied probability and reliability literature for over last 30 years. Beside the intrinsic mathematical interest (often related to functional equations) the results in this area are helpful for probabilistic and statistical modelling, especially in engineering and biostatistical problems. A substantial number of characterizations has been devoted to a legion of variants of exponential distributions. The main reliability measures associated with a random vector X are the conditional moment function defined by m_φ(x)=E(φ(X)|X?x) (which is equivalent to the mean residual life function e(x)=m_φ(x)-x when φ(x)=x) and the hazard gradient function h(x)=-∇logR(x), where R(x) is the reliability (survival) function, R(x)=Pr(X?x), and ∇ is the operator . In this paper we study the consequences of a linear relationship between the hazard gradient and the conditional moment functions for continuous bivariate and multivariate distributions. We obtain a general characterization result which is the applied to characterize Arnold and Strauss’ bivariate exponential distribution and some related models.     

On the Number of Nonisomorphic Subtrees of a Tree

We show that a tree of order n has at most nonisomorphic subtrees, and that this bound is best possible. We also prove an analogous result for the number of nonisomorphic rooted subtrees of a rooted tree.     

Theoretical aspects of ill-posed problems in statistics

Ill-posed problems arise in a wide variety of practical statistical situations, ranging from biased sampling and Wicksell's problem in stereology to regression, errors-in-variables and empirical Bayes models. The common mathematics behind many of these problems is operator inversion. When this inverse is not continuous a regularization of the inverse is needed to construct approximate solutions. In the statistical literature, however, ill-posed problems are rather often solved in an ad hoc manner which obccures these common features. It is our purpose to place the concept of regularization within a general and unifying framework and to illustrate its power in a number of interesting statistical examples. We will focus on regularization in Hilbert spaces, using spectral theory and reduction to multiplication operators. A partial extension to a Banach function space is briefly considered.Research supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.     

A van Kampen theorem for equivariant fundamental groupoids

The equivariant fundamental groupoid of a G-space X is a category which generalizes the fundamental groupoid of a space to the equivariant setting. In this paper, we prove a van Kampen theorem for these categories: the equivariant fundamental groupoid of X can be obtained as a pushout of the categories associated to two open G-subsets covering X. This is proved by interpreting the equivariant fundamental groupoid as a Grothendieck semidirect product construction, and combining general properties of this construction with the ordinary (non-equivariant) van Kampen theorem. We then illustrate applications of this theorem by showing that the equivariant fundamental groupoid of a G-CW complex only depends on the 2-skeleton and also by using the theorem to compute an example.