Advances for proficiency testing for genetic laboratory science

Nucleic acid based clinical genetic testing has undergone explosive growth in recent years due in large part to the human genome project. Characterization of the human genome has led to a molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of many human diseases, and ultimately to clinical molecular tests becoming routinely used to diagnose a wide diversity of diseases. This rapid growth in clinical molecular genetic testing coupled with the complexity of the analytical procedures underscores the necessity for proficiency testing (i.e. external quality assessment) to allow laboratories offering such services the ability to evaluate their analytical procedures via inter-laboratory comparisons. The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) in partnership with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have been offering proficiency testing for clinical molecular genetics laboratories since 1995, and presently have more than 230 laboratories from 11 countries enrolled in this program. This paper describes the evolution of this program and several challenges encountered in the delivery of a proficiency testing program for laboratories offering clinical molecular genetic services. Received: 13 April 2002 Accepted: 18 July 2002     

The Self-Multiset Sampler

The multiset sampler has been shown to be an effective algorithm to sample from complex multimodal distributions, but the multiset sampler requires that the parameters in the target distribution can be divided into two parts: the parameters of interest and the nuisance parameters. We propose a new self-multiset sampler (SMSS), which extends the multiset sampler to distributions without nuisance parameters. We also generalize our method to distributions with unbounded or infinite support. Numerical results show that the SMSS and its generalization have a substantial advantage in sampling multimodal distributions compared to the ordinary Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm and some popular variants. Supplemental materials for the article are available online.     

Effects of knowledge spillover on inter-organizational resource sharing decision in collaborative knowledge creation

Collaborative knowledge creation is important for firms to gain new competitive advantages, but knowledge outgoing spillover harms their existing competitive advantages, which puts them into a dilemma when investing R&D resources. This study formalizes and investigates this dilemma using the Stackelberg leader–follower framework. Through our analyses, we find that, (1) current knowledge creation efforts and prior knowledge are substitutable in collaborative knowledge creation, and through controlling the ratio of current knowledge creation efforts to prior knowledge invested, the leader and the follower can gain benefits from collaboration and restrict knowledge outgoing spillover simultaneously; (2) because the leader invests resources first and faces moral hazards, it has the incentives to participate in collaborative knowledge creation only when its benefits from collaborative knowledge creation fruits and knowledge incoming spillover are bigger than those of the follower, and the more moral hazards it confronts, the more it demands; (3) the leader and the follower invest resources at ratios consistent with the benefits and costs the resources bring to them if they can determine the amount, or the collaboration is unstable.     

Laminar Heat Transfer Augmentation through A Square Duct and Circular Tube Fitted with Twisted Tapes

Experimental studies on friction factor and heat transfer characteristics for the laminar flow of ethylene glycol in a square duct fitted with twisted tapes of different twist ratios under nearly uniform wall temperature conditions are reported in this article. The Nusselt numbers were found to be 5.44–7.49 and 2.46–4.87 times that of plain square duct forced convection values based on constant flow rate and constant pumping power criteria, respectively, for y = 2.66. The augmented friction factor and Nusselt number for a square duct is about 1.9 and 2.10 times higher than that for an augmented circular tube.     

Single machine scheduling with resource allocation and learning effect considering the rate-modifying activity

This paper addresses a single machine scheduling problem in which the actual job processing times are determined by resource allocation function, its position in a sequence and a rate-modifying activity simultaneously. We discuss two objective functions with two resource allocation functions under the consideration of a rate-modifying activity. We show that the problems are solvable in O(n⁴)$O(n^4)$ time for a linear resource allocation function and are solvable in O(n²logn)$O(n^2\mathit{logn})$ time for a convex resource allocation function.     

Augmenting Outerplanar Graphs to Meet Diameter Requirements

Given an undirected graph and an integer , we consider the problem of augmenting G by a minimum set of new edges so that the diameter becomes at most D. It is known that no constant factor approximation algorithms to this problem with an arbitrary graph G can be obtained unless , while the problem with only a few graph classes such as forests is approximable within a constant factor. In this article, we give the first constant factor approximation algorithm to the problem with an outerplanar graph G. We also show that if the target diameter D is even, then the case where G is a partial 2‐tree is also approximable within a constant.     

Hybrid defensive resource allocations in the face of partially strategic attackers in a sequential defender–attacker game

Many models have been developed to study homeland security games between governments (defender) and terrorists (attacker, adversary, enemy), with the limiting assumption of the terrorists being rational or strategic. In this paper, we develop a novel hybrid model in which a centralized government allocates defensive resources among multiple potential targets to minimize total expected loss, in the face of a terrorist being either strategic or non-strategic. The attack probabilities of a strategic terrorist are endogenously determined in the model, while the attack probabilities of a non-strategic terrorist are exogenously provided. We study the robustness of defensive resource allocations by comparing the government’s total expected losses when: (a) the government knows the probability that the terrorist is strategic; (b) the government falsely believes that the terrorist is fully strategic, when the terrorist could be non-strategic; and (c) the government falsely believes that the terrorist is fully non-strategic, when the terrorist could be strategic. Besides providing six theorems to highlight the general results, we find that game models are generally preferred to non-game model even when the probability of a non-strategic terrorist is significantly greater than 50%. We conclude that defensive resource allocations based on game-theoretic models would not incur too much additional expected loss and thus more preferred, as compared to non-game-theoretic models.     

Heat transfer augmentation and pumping power in double-pipe heat exchangers

One of the criteria for evaluating the performance of a heat exchanger with extended surfaces is the pumping power required for a specified heat duty. The results of an experimental project to relate the pumping power to heat transfer augmentation in a double-pipe heat exchanger are reported. The inner, electrically heated pipe was provided with external, rectangular, axial extended surfaces with interruptions. Heat transfer augmentation and friction factors were determined for different configurations with air as the fluid. Starting with continuous fins, cuts were introduced in the fins to give four ratios of the finssegment length to the gap between the segments, and finally all the fins were removed, which resulted in smooth pipes. Five different mass flow rates in two different inner pipes were employed. Lengths, surface areas, and pumping powers for finned pipes are compared with those for smooth pipes. The average heat transfer coefficient increases with an increase in the frequency of the interruptions. For equal heat transfer rates a significant reduction in the lengths can be achieved by interrupted fins. In many cases the reduction in the length is also accompanied by a reduction in the pumping power.     

Coalitional strategy-proofness and resource monotonicity for house allocation problems

We consider the problem of allocating houses to agents when monetary compensations are not allowed. We present a simple and independent proof of a result due to Ehlers and Klaus (Int J Game Theory 32:545–560, 2004) that characterizes the class of rules satisfying efficiency, strategy-proofness, resource monotonicity and nonbossiness. I am very much indebted to William Thomson for his invaluable suggestions.