A Two-Stage Group Testing Model for Infections with Window Periods

We present a two-stage group testing model for the detection of viruses in blood samples in the presence of random window periods. As usual, if a tested group is found to be positive, all its members are treated individually. The groups that were tested negative return for a second round after a certain time, new blood samples are taken and tested after pooling. The given system parameters are the size of the population to be screened, the incidence rates of the infections, the probability distributions of the lengths of the window periods, and the costs of group tests. The objective is to minimize the expected cost of running the system, which is composed of the cost of the conducted group tests and penalties on delayed test results and on misclassifications (noninfected persons declared to be positive and, more importantly, persons whose infections have not been identified). By an appropriate choice of the group size and the waiting time for the second round of testings one wants to optimize the various trade-offs involved. We derive in closed form all the probabilistic quantities occurring in the objective function and the constraints. Several numerical examples are given. The model is also extended to the case of several types of viruses with different window periods.     

A direct evaluation of the periods of the Weierstrass zeta function

We show how to obtain the difference function of the Weierstrass zeta function very directly, by choosing an appropriate order of summation in the series defining this function. As a byproduct, we show how to obtain the quasi-modularity of the weight 2 Eisenstein series immediately from the fact that it appears in this difference function and the homogeneity properties of the latter.     

On the Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation of balance equations in porous media

The article presents a general approach to modeling the transport of extensive quantities in the case of flow of multiple multicomponent fluid phases in a deformable porous medium domain under nonisothermal conditions. The models are written in a modified Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation. In this modified formulation, the material derivatives are written in terms of modified velocities. These are the velocities at which the various phase and component variables propagate in the domain, along their respective characteristic curves. It is shown that these velocities depend on the heterogeneity of various solid matrix and fluid properties. The advantage of this formulation, with respect to the usually employed Eulerian one, is that numerical dispersion, associated with the advective fluxes of extensive quantities, are eliminated. The methodology presented in the article shows how the Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation is written in terms of the relatively small number of primary variables of a transport problem. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 13: 505–530, 1997     

Two-stage queueing network models for quality control and testing

We study sojourn times in a two-node open queueing network with a processor sharing node and a delay node, with Poisson arrivals at the PS node. Motivated by quality control and blood testing applications, we consider a feedback mechanism in which customers may either leave the system after service at the PS node or move to the delay node; from the delay node, they always return to the PS node for new quality controls or blood tests. We propose various approximations for the distribution of the total sojourn time in the network; each of these approximations yields the exact mean sojourn time, and very accurate results for the variance. The best of the three approximations is used to tackle an optimization problem that is mainly inspired by a blood testing application.     

Investigation of electronic coupling in semiconductor double quantum wells using coherent optical two-dimensional Fourier transform spectroscopy

We investigate electronic coupling in asymmetric semiconductor double quantum wells using a new spectroscopy method, optical two-dimensional Fourier transform (2D-FT) spectroscopy. Measurements on two samples with different barrier thicknesses show drastically different 2D-FT spectra. We compare these measurements to conventional one-dimensional four-wave-mixing measurements, highlighting the unique advantages of the 2D-FT spectroscopy. An oscillatory behavior in the intensity of the cross peaks as a function of the mixing time is observed. This oscillation is attributed to interference between different quantum mechanical pathways, and its features are determined by the non-radiative Raman coherence between dipole-forbidden states.     

Poincaré’s Relativistic Physics: Its Origins and Nature

Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) developed a relativistic physics by elevating the empirical inability to detect absolute motion, or motion relative to the ether, to the principle of relativity, and its mathematics ensured that it would be compatible with that principle. Although Poincaré’s aim and theory were similar to those of Albert Einstein (1879–1955) in creating his special theory of relativity, Poincaré’s relativistic physics should not be seen as an attempt to achieve Einstein’s theory but as an independent endeavor. Poincaré was led to advance the principle of relativity as a consequence of his reflections on late nineteenth-century electrodynamics; of his conviction that physics should be formulated as a physics of principles; of his conventionalistic arguments on the nature of time and its measurement; and of his knowledge of the experimental failure to detect absolute motion. The nonrelativistic theory of electrodynamics of Hendrik A.Lorentz (1853–1928) of 1904 provided the means for Poincaré to elaborate a relativistic physics that embraced all known physical forces, including that of gravitation. Poincaré did not assume any dynamical explanation of the Lorentz transformation, which followed from the principle of relativity, and he did not seek to dismiss classical concepts, such as that of the ether, in his new relativistic physics. Shaul Katzir teaches in the Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Bar Ilan University.     

Ultrafast optical spectroscopy of spectral fluctuations in a dense atomic vapor

Transient four-wave mixing experiments with 100 fs pulses in a dense potassium vapor probe the electronic energy fluctuations that lead to optical decoherence. Echo-peak shift experiments yield a biexponential two-time correlation function of energy level fluctuations. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the slow component is a many-body excitonic contribution arising from long-range resonant interactions. The decay of the correlation function occurs on comparable time scales in theory and experiment.     

On the dynamics of excitations in disordered systems

A new, time-local (TL) reduced equation of motion for the probability distribution of excitations in a disordered system is developed. ToO(k²) the TL equation results in a Gaussian spatial probability distribution, i.e, P(r, t) = [(2)^1/2]^–dexp(-r²/2²), where = (t) is a correlation length, andr = ¦r¦. The corresponding distribution derived from the Hahn-Zwanzig (HZ) equation is more complicated and assumes the asymptotic (r ) form: P(r, s)(s ^d )^–1exp(–r/) · (r/)^(1-d)/2 where = (s),d is the space dimensionality, ands is the Laplace transform variable conjugate tot. The HZ distribution generalizes the scaling form suggested by Alexanderet al. ford= 1. In the Markov limit (t)t, (s)1/s, and the two distributions are identical (ordinary diffusion).     

On polynomial variance functions

Summary Let be a natural exponential family on and (V, ) be its variance function. Here, is the mean domain of andV, defined on , is the variance of . A problem of increasing interest in the literature is the following: Given an open interval and a functionV defined on , is the pair (V, ) a variance function of some natural exponential family? Here, we consider the case whereV is a polynomial. We develop a complex-analytic approach to this problem and provide necessary conditions for (V, ) to be such a variance function. These conditions are also sufficient for the class of third degree polynomials and certain subclasses of polynomials of higher degree.