On the robustness of least squares procedures in regression models

The criterion robustness of the standard likelihood ratio test (LRT) under the multivariate normal regression model and also the inference robustness of the same test under the univariate set up are established for certain nonnormal distributions of errors. Restricting attention to the normal distribution of errors in the context of univariate regression models, conditions on the design matrix are established under which the usual LRT of a linear hypothesis (under homoscedasticity of errors) remains valid if the errors have an intraclass covariance structure. The conditions hold in the case of some standard designs. The relevance of C. R. Rao's (1967 In Proceedings Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Math. Stat. and Prob., Vol. 1, pp. 355–372) and G. Zyskind's (1967, Ann. Math. Statist.38 1092–1110) conditions in this context is discussed.     

Two-dimensional convexities are join-hull commutative

It is shown that two-dimensional convex structures with certain natural properties are join-hull commutative. The main intermediate step is the computation of the so-called exchange number. We also give two examples of three-dimensional convexities which are not join-hull commutative. The second one has certain additional properties showing that the main theorem is sharp in many other respects. These properties are obtained from a study of convex hyperspaces.     

Explicit constructions of graphs without short cycles and low density codes

We give an explicit construction of regular graphs of degree 2r withn vertices and girth ≧c logn/logr. We use Cayley graphs of factor groups of free subgroups of the modular group. An application to low density codes is given.     

Measurement of the transition strength of the 00o2 9.4 μm sequence band in CO2 using a tunable diode laser

We report the first accurate measurements of the transition strengths and linewidths of the 00^o2 9.4 μm sequence lines of CO₂. This sequence band is found to be very similar to the regular 00^o1 laser band, except for an experimentally determined factor of 1.89±0.12 increase in transition strength (if the CO₂ molecule is treated as a simple harmonic oscillator the theoretical increase in transition strength is 2.0). The laser absorption spectrometer used for these measurements can detect absorption coefficients in CO₂ of ≈10⁻⁷ m⁻¹, and we discuss the feasibility of using this sensitivity to monitor rare isotopic forms of CO₂. Work supported by the Department of National Health and Welfare, Environment Canada, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada.     

Central limit theorem and weak law of large numbers with rates for martingales in Banach spaces

This paper is concerned with large-$\text{O}$ error estimates concerning convergence in distribution as well as norm convergence for Banach space-valued martingale difference sequences. Indeed, two general limit theorems equipped with rates of convergence for such difference sequences are established. Applications of these lead to the central limit theorem and the weak law of large numbers with rates for Banach space-valued martingales.     

Using a Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm to Minimize Variance in Response Time for Multimedia Object Requests

This research addresses the scheduling problem of multimedia object requests, which is an important problem in information systems, in particular, for World Wide Web applications. The performance measure considered is the variance of response time which is crucial as end users expect fair treatment to their service requests. This problem is known to be NP-hard. The literature survey indicates that two heuristics have been proposed to solve the problem. In this paper, we present a new heuristic, a hybrid evolutionary heuristic, which is shown to perform much better than the two existing ones, e.g., the overall average errors of the existing ones are 1.012 and 2.042 while the error of the proposed hybrid evolutionary heuristic is 0.154.