A regression approach to ROC surface, with applications to Alzheimer’s disease

We consider the estimation of three-dimensional ROC surfaces for continuous tests given covariates.Three way ROC analysis is important in our motivating example where patients with Alzheimer’s disease are usually classified into three categories and should receive different category-specific medical treatment.There has been no discussion on how covariates affect the three way ROC analysis.We propose a regression framework induced from the relationship between test results and covariates.We consider several practical cases and the corresponding inference procedures.Simulations are conducted to validate our methodology.The application on the motivating example illustrates clearly the age and sex effects on the accuracy for Mini-Mental State Examination of Alzheimer’s disease.     

Group extensions and free actions by finite groups on solvmanifolds

The purpose of this paper is to generalize Yalçin's result [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 352 , 2689–2700 (2000)] from tori to solvmanifolds. As a result, we prove that if (?_p)^r acts freely on a solvmanifold M of dimension n, then r ≤ n (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

PSP对癌症病人化/放疗毒性反应的数据统计分析

按WHO抗癌药急性及亚急性毒性分级标准 ,对 650例化、放疗肿瘤患者分别作了治疗前后毒性反应的总分值统计。结果加服PSP组 ( 557例 )的疗后总分值为837,低于疗前的 962 ;而 93例阳性对照组 (加服鲨肝醇 )疗前总分为 157,疗后为 2 4 1,疗后总分高于疗前。用Wilcoxon两样本秩和统计法检验 ,PSP组和对照组间具有极显著差异 ,表明PSP对比、放疗药物引起的毒副反应有明显降低效应。     

A maintenance model with failures and inspection following Markovian arrival processes and two repair modes

We consider a deteriorating system submitted to external and internal failures, whose deterioration level is known by means of inspections. There are two types of repairs: minimal and perfect, depending on the deterioration level, each one following a different phase-type distribution. The failures and the inspections follow different Markovian arrival processes (MAP). Under these assumptions, the system is governed by a generalized Markov process, whose state space and generator are constructed. This general model includes the phase-type renewal process as a special case. The distribution of the number of minimal and perfect repairs between two inspections are determined. A numerical application optimizing costs is performed, and different particular cases of the model are compared.     

Higher rank numerical ranges and low rank perturbations of quantum channels

For a positive integer k, the rank-k numerical range Λk(A) of an operator A acting on a Hilbert space H of dimension at least k is the set of scalars λ such that PAP=λP for some rank k orthogonal projection P. In this paper, a close connection between low rank perturbation of an operator A and Λk(A) is established. In particular, for 1?r<k it is shown that Λk(A)⊆Λk−r(A+F) for any operator F with rank(F)?r. In quantum computing, this result implies that a quantum channel with a k-dimensional error correcting code under a perturbation of rank at most r will still have a (k−r)-dimensional error correcting code. Moreover, it is shown that if A is normal or if the dimension of A is finite, then Λk(A) can be obtained as the intersection of Λk−r(A+F) for a collection of rank r operators F. Examples are given to show that the result fails if A is a general operator. The closure and the interior of the convex set Λk(A) are completely determined. Analogous results are obtained for Λ_∞(A) defined as the set of scalars λ such that PAP=λP for an infinite rank orthogonal projection P. It is shown that Λ_∞(A) is the intersection of all Λk(A) for k=1,2,…. If A−μI is not compact for all μ∈C, then the closure and the interior of Λ_∞(A) coincide with those of the essential numerical range of A. The situation for the special case when A−μI is compact for some μ∈C is also studied.     

Numerical analysis for factorial data analysis. Part II: Special purpose hardware—the programmable systolic array SARDA

The second part of this paper deals with the systolic implementation of the computational kernel for factorial data analysis, defined in Part I, on special-purpose hardware. The framework of the study is that a sequence of different algorithms has to be performed on a unique hardware array. This fact has led us to the design of the programmable systolic array SARDA: this is a triangular array which consists of programmable nodes with local memory and programmable orthogonal connections.     

Topological properties of stock market networks: The case of Brazil

This paper investigates the topological properties of the Brazilian stock market networks. We build the minimum spanning tree, which is based on the concept of ultrametricity, using the correlation matrix for a variety of stocks of different sectors. Our results suggest that stocks tend to cluster by sector. We employ a dynamic approach using complex network measures and find that the relative importance of different sectors within the network varies. The financial, energy and material sectors are the most important within the network.     

Computing the minimal covering set

We present the first polynomial-time algorithm for computing the minimal covering set of a (weak) tournament. The algorithm draws upon a linear programming formulation of a subset of the minimal covering set known as the essential set. On the other hand, we show that no efficient algorithm exists for two variants of the minimal covering set–the minimal upward covering set and the minimal downward covering set–unless P equals NP. Finally, we observe a strong relationship between von Neumann–Morgenstern stable sets and upward covering on the one hand, and the Banks set and downward covering on the other.     

Quasinormal subgroups of order p 2

The location of quasinormal subgroups in a group is not particularly well known. Maximal ones always have to be normal, but little has been proved about the minimal ones. In finite groups, the difficulties arise in the p-groups. Here we prove that, for every odd prime p, a quasinormal subgroup of order p ² in a finite p-group G contains a quasinormal subgroup of G of order p. S. Stonehewer is grateful to the Australian National University for financial support during the preparation of this paper.