Economy of proficiency testing: reference versus consensus values

Many proficiency tests are operated with a consensus value derived from the participants’ results. Apart from technical issues, one of the reasons often mentioned is that proficiency tests operated with consensus values would be cheaper than those using reference values obtained from a priori characterisation measurements. The economy of a proficiency test must of course be balanced by the need of the participants, and the quality of the comparison in general. The proficiency tests selected in this study had both a reference value and a consensus value, one of which was used for assessing the performance of the participating laboratories. In this work, both a technical and an economical assessment of how the comparisons were operated is made. From the evaluation, it follows that usually the use of consensus values does not necessarily reduce the costs of a proficiency test. However, frequently it may be observed that the quality of the assessment of the laboratories is better with a reference value. Received: 11 October 2000 Accepted: 3 January 2001     

The normal famility of mermorphic functions

Let F be a family of mermorphic functions in a domain D, and let a, b, c be complex numbers, a ≠ b. If for each f ∈ F, the zeros of f-c are of multiplicity ≥ k ＋ 1, and -↑Ef（k）（a） belong to -↑Ef （a）, -↑Ef（k）（b）belong to -↑Ef （b）, then F is normal in D.     

Contractible subgraphs, Thomassen’s conjecture and the dominating cycle conjecture for snarks

We show that the conjectures by Matthews and Sumner (every 4-connected claw-free graph is Hamiltonian), by Thomassen (every 4-connected line graph is Hamiltonian) and by Fleischner (every cyclically 4-edge-connected cubic graph has either a 3-edge-coloring or a dominating cycle), which are known to be equivalent, are equivalent to the statement that every snark (i.e. a cyclically 4-edge-connected cubic graph of girth at least five that is not 3-edge-colorable) has a dominating cycle.We use a refinement of the contractibility technique which was introduced by Ryjá?ek and Schelp in 2003 as a common generalization and strengthening of the reduction techniques by Catlin and Veldman and of the closure concept introduced by Ryjá?ek in 1997.     

The Critical Values of a Polynomial

It has been known for a long time that any real sequence y ₁ , . . . ,y _n-1 is the sequence of critical values of some real polynomial. Here we show that any complex sequence w ₁ , . . . ,w _n-1 is the sequence of critical values of some complex polynomial.     

Variational principles for symmetric bilinear forms

Every compact symmetric bilinear form B on a complex Hilbert space produces, via an antilinear representing operator, a real spectrum consisting of a sequence decreasing to zero. We show that the most natural analog of Courant's minimax principle for B detects only the evenly indexed eigenvalues in this spectrum. We explain this phenomenon, analyze the extremal objects, and apply this general framework to the Friedrichs operator of a planar domain and to Toeplitz operators and their compressions. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Bayesian inference using record values from Rayleigh model with application

In this article, based on a set of upper record values from a Rayleigh distribution, Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches have been used to obtain the estimators of the parameter, and some lifetime parameters such as the reliability and hazard functions. Bayes estimators have been developed under symmetric (squared error) and asymmetric (LINEX and general entropy (GE)) loss functions. These estimators are derived using the informative and non-informative prior distributions for σ. We compare the performance of the presented Bayes estimators with known, non-Bayesian, estimators such as the maximum likelihood (ML) and the best linear unbiased (BLU) estimators. We show that Bayes estimators under the asymmetric loss functions are superior to both the ML and BLU estimators. The highest posterior density (HPD) intervals for the Rayleigh parameter and its reliability and hazard functions are presented. Also, Bayesian prediction intervals of the future record values are obtained and discussed. Finally, practical examples using real record values are given to illustrate the application of the results.     

Selecting hidden Markov model state number with cross-validated likelihood

The problem of estimating the number of hidden states in a hidden Markov model is considered. Emphasis is placed on cross-validated likelihood criteria. Using cross-validation to assess the number of hidden states allows to circumvent the well-documented technical difficulties of the order identification problem in mixture models. Moreover, in a predictive perspective, it does not require that the sampling distribution belongs to one of the models in competition. However, computing cross-validated likelihood for hidden Markov models for which only one training sample is available, involves difficulties since the data are not independent. Two approaches are proposed to compute cross-validated likelihood for a hidden Markov model. The first one consists of using a deterministic half-sampling procedure, and the second one consists of an adaptation of the EM algorithm for hidden Markov models, to take into account randomly missing values induced by cross-validation. Numerical experiments on both simulated and real data sets compare different versions of cross-validated likelihood criterion and penalised likelihood criteria, including BIC and a penalised marginal likelihood criterion. Those numerical experiments highlight a promising behaviour of the deterministic half-sampling criterion.     

An improved HPTLC method for the rapid identification and quantification of sulfonamides

Summary R_f values of twenty therapeutic sulfonamides have been estimated in seven solvent systems. Based on these data a simple identification scheme was developed demanding only three solvent systems for complete separation.Quantification of corresponding fluorescamine derivatives at nanogram level was performed by the use of an TLC-scanner configured online with a microcomputer. Mathematical treatment of standard curves using the computer program Curve Fitter are discussed. Validity and reproducibility of results are compared with data obtained by HPLC and show good correlation.     

Orthogonal similarity transformation into block‐semiseparable matrices of semiseparability rank k

Very recently, an algorithm, which reduces any symmetric matrix into a semiseparable one of semi‐ separability rank 1 by similar orthogonality transformations, has been proposed by Vandebril, Van Barel and Mastronardi. Partial execution of this algorithm computes a semiseparable matrix whose eigenvalues are the Ritz‐values obtained by the Lanczos' process applied to the original matrix. Also a kind of nested subspace iteration is performed at each step. In this paper, we generalize the above results and propose an algorithm to reduce any symmetric matrix into a similar block‐semiseparable one of semiseparability rank k, with k ∈ ?, by orthogonal similarity transformations. Also in this case partial execution of the algorithm computes a block‐semiseparable matrix whose eigenvalues are the Ritz‐values obtained by the block‐Lanczos' process with k starting vectors, applied to the original matrix. Subspace iteration is performed at each step as well. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A generating function for sums of multiple zeta values and its applications

A generating function for specified sums of multiple zeta values is defined and a differential equation that characterizes this function is given. As applications, some relations for multiple zeta values over the field of rational numbers are discussed.