Waiting Time for an Almost Perfect Run and Applications in Statistical Process Control

A natural and intuitively appealing generalization of the runs principle arises if instead of looking at fixed-length strings with all their positions occupied by successes, we allow the appearance of a small number of failures. Therefore, the focus is on clusters of consecutive trials which contain large proportion of successes. Such a formation is traditionally called “scan” or alternatively, due to the high concentration of successes within it, almost perfect (success) run. In the present paper, we study in detail the waiting time distribution for random variables related to the first occurrence of an almost perfect run in a sequence of Bernoulli trials. Using an appropriate Markov chain embedding approach we present an efficient recursive scheme that permits the construction of the associated transition probability matrix in an algorithmically efficient way. It is worth mentioning that, the suggested methodology, is applicable not only in the case of almost perfect runs, but can tackle the general discrete scan case as well. Two interesting applications in statistical process control are also discussed.     

Easy and hard bottleneck location problems

We consider a bottleneck location problem on a graph and present an efficient (polynomial time) algorithm for solving it. The problem involve the location of K noxious facilities that are to be placed as far as possilbe from the other facilities, and the objective is to maximize the minimum distance from the noxious facilities to the others. We then show that two other bottleneck (min-max) location problems, finding K-centers and absolute K-centers of a graph appear to be very difficult to solve even for reasonably good approximate solutions.     

On the maximal operators of Walsh-Kaczmarz-Fejér means

The main aim of this paper is to prove that the maximal operator $\sigma _p^{\kappa , * } f: = \sup _{n \in P} {{\left| {\sigma _n^\kappa f} \right|} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\left| {\sigma _n^\kappa f} \right|} {\left( {n + 1} \right)^{{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 {p - 2}}} \right. \kern-0em} {p - 2}}} }}} \right. \kern-0em} {\left( {n + 1} \right)^{{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 {p - 2}}} \right. \kern-0em} {p - 2}}} }}$ is bounded from the Hardy space H _p to the space L _p for 0 < p < 1/2.     

Kolmogorov complexity and computably enumerable sets

We study the computably enumerable sets in terms of the:     

On the descent of Levi factors

Let G be a linear algebraic group over a field k of characteristic p > 0, and suppose that the unipotent radical R of G is defined and split over k. By a Levi factor of G, one means a closed subgroup M which is a complement to R in G. In this paper, we give two results related to the descent of Levi factors. First, suppose ? is a finite Galois extension of k for which the extension degree [? : k] is relatively prime to p. If G _/? has a Levi decomposition, we show that G has a Levi decomposition. Second, suppose that there is a G-equivariant isomorphism of algebraic groups ${R \simeq Lie(R)}$ – i.e. R is a vector group with a linear action of the reductive quotient G/R. If ${G_{{/k}_{sep}}}$ has a Levi decomposition for a separable closure k _sep of k, then G has a Levi decomposition. Finally, we give an example of a disconnected, abelian, linear algebraic group G for which ${G_{{/k}_{sep}}}$ has a Levi decomposition, but G itself has no Levi decomposition.     

Graphical Models for Ordinal Data

This article considers a graphical model for ordinal variables, where it is assumed that the data are generated by discretizing the marginal distributions of a latent multivariate Gaussian distribution. The relationships between these ordinal variables are then described by the underlying Gaussian graphical model and can be inferred by estimating the corresponding concentration matrix. Direct estimation of the model is computationally expensive, but an approximate EM-like algorithm is developed to provide an accurate estimate of the parameters at a fraction of the computational cost. Numerical evidence based on simulation studies shows the strong performance of the algorithm, which is also illustrated on datasets on movie ratings and an educational survey.     

A principal ideal theorem analogue for modules over commutative rings

The Principal Ideal Theorem states that if Re is a commutative Noetherian ring and ? is a prime ideal of Re which is minimal over a principal ideal then Pe has height at most 1. Also, if Re is a (not necessarily Noetherian) UFD and Pe is a prime ideal of Re minimal over a principal ideal then Pe has height at most 1. We shall show that there are analogues for modules over commutative rings, but they hold only in special cases.     

Uniqueness of the group topology of some homeomorphism groups

In this paper, we generalize a theorem of Kallman [2, Theorem 1.1] and we resolve the unsettled case there.     

Null controllability of von Kármán thermoelastic plates under the clamped or free mechanical boundary conditions

In this paper, we provide results of local and global null controllability for 2-D thermoelastic systems, in the absence of rotational inertia, and under the influence of the (nonLipschitz) von Kármán nonlinearity. The plate component may be taken to satisfy either the clamped or higher order (and physically relevant) free boundary conditions. In the accompanying analysis, critical use is made of sharp observability estimates which obtain for the linearization of the thermoelastic plate (these being derived in [G. Avalos, I. Lasiecka, The null controllability of thermoelastic plates and singularity of the associated minimal energy function, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 294 (2004) 34-61] and [G. Avalos, I. Lasiecka, Asymptotic rates of blowup for the minimal energy function for the null controllability of thermoelastic plates: The free case, in: Proc. of the Conference for the Control of Partial Differential Equations, Georgetown University, Dekker, in press]). Moreover, another key ingredient in our work to steer the given nonlinear dynamics is the recent result in [A. Favini, M.A. Horn, I. Lasiecka, D. Tataru, Addendum to the paper: Global existence, uniqueness and regularity of solution to a von Kármán system with nonlinear boundary dissipation, Differential Integral Equations 10 (1997) 197-200] concerning the sharp regularity of the von Kármán nonlinearity.