In the study of bivariate processes, one often encounters expressions involving repeated combinations of bivariate continuum operations such as multiple bivariate convolutions, marginal convolutions, tail integration, partial differentiation and multiplication by bivariate polynomials. In many cases numerical computation of such results is quite tedious and laborious. In this paper, the bivariate Laguerre transform is developed which provides a systematic numerical tool for evaluating such bivariate continuum operations. The formalism is an extension of the univariate Laguerre transform developed by Keilson and Nunn (1979), Keilson et al. (1981) and Keilson and Sumita (1981), using the product orthonormal basis generated from Laguerre functions. The power of the procedure is proven through numerical exploration of bivariate processes arising from correlated cumulative shock models.

The classical Reed-Frost process is generalized by allowing infection probabilities to depend on current epidemic size. Such a process can be imbedded in a simple Markov process derived from i.i.d. waiting times. The final size of the epidemic has the same distribution as the time for the first crossing of a certain linear barrier of the imbedding process. The asymptotic distribution of the final size can be derived from some weak convergence results for the imbedding process. The existence of a distribution determining set of harmonic functions for these chain-binomial processes is also established.

We consider the spread of a general epidemic amongst a population consisting of invididuals with differing susceptibilities to the disease. Deterministic and stochastic versions of the basic model are described and analysed. For both versions of the model we show that assuming a uniform susceptible population, with average susceptibility, leads to an increased spread of infection. We also show how our results can be extended to the carrier-borne epidemic model of Weiss (1965).

It is known that Bartoszyński’s model for the growth of rabies virus in an infected host is a continuous branching process. We show by explicit construction that any such process is a randomly time-transformed compound Poisson process having a negative linear drift.

This connection is exploited to obtain limit theorems for the population size and for the jump times in the rabies model. Some of these results are obtained in a more general context wherein the compound Poisson process is replaced by a subordinator.

Using a representation formula expressing the mixed cumulants of realvalued random variables by corresponding moments, sufficient conditions are given for the normal convergence of suitably standardized shot noise assuming that the generating stationary point process is independently marked and Brillinger mixing and that its intensity tends to ∞. Furthermore, estimates for the rate of this normal convergence are obtained by exploiting a general lemma on probabilities of large deviations and on the rate of normal convergence.

A mathematical model for the process of recombinational repair of DNA damage is presented. Based on the model, a method is proposed for analyzing fragment mass distributions from experiments designed to detect recombinational repair in cells. The procedures developed can be used to analyze experiments involving sucrose-gradient measurements of mass distributions. The model also provides a framework for discussion of various molecular models of this repair process.

For each N≧1, let {XN(t, x), t≧0} be a discrete-time stochastic process with XN(0) = x. Let FN(y) = E(XN(t + 1) | XN(t) = y), and define YN(t, x) = FN(YN(t – 1, x)), t≧1 and YN(0, x) = x. Assume that in a neighborhood of the origin FN(y) = mNy(l + O(y)) where mN> 1, and define for δ> 0 and x> 0, υN(δ, x) = inf{t:xmtN>δ}. Conditions are given under which, for θ> 0 and ε> 0, there exist constants δ > 0 and L <∞, depending on εand 0, such that This result together with a result of Kurtz (1970), (1971) shows that, under appropriate conditions, the time needed for the stochastic process {XN(t, 1/N), t≧0} to escape a δ -neighborhood of the origin is of order log Νδ /log mN. To illustrate the results the Wright-Fisher model with selection is considered.

The distribution of the extinction time for a linear birth and death process subject to catastrophes is determined. The catastrophes occur at a rate proportional to the population size and their magnitudes are random variables having an arbitrary distribution with generating function d(·). The asymptotic behaviour (for large initial population size) of the expected time to extinction is found under the assumption that d(.) has radius of convergence greater than 1. Corresponding results are derived for a related class of diffusion processes interrupted by catastrophes with sizes having an arbitrary distribution function.

This paper is concerned with two problems in connection with exponential ergodicity for birth-death processes on a semi-infinite lattice of integers. The first is to determine from the birth and death rates whether exponential ergodicity prevails. We give some necessary and some sufficient conditions which suffice to settle the question for most processes encountered in practice. In particular, a complete solution is obtained for processes where, from some finite state n onwards, the birth and death rates are rational functions of n. The second, more difficult, problem is to evaluate the decay parameter of an exponentially ergodic birth-death process. Our contribution to the solution of this problem consists of a number of upper and lower bounds.

Let F(·) be a c.d.f. on [0,∞), f(s) = ∑∞0pjsi a p.g.f. with p0 = 0, < 1 < m = Σjpj < ∞ and 1 < ρ <∞. For the functional equation for a c.d.f. H(·) on [0,∞] we establish that if 1 – F(x) = O(x–θ) for some θ > α =(log m)/(log p) there exists a unique solution H(·) to (∗) in the class C of c.d.f.’s satisfying 1 – H(x) = o(x–α).

We give a probabilistic construction of this solution via branching random walks with discounting. We also show non-uniqueness if the condition 1 – H(x) = o(x–α) is relaxed.

We address the question of controlling the Brownian path in several dimensions (d≧2) by continually choosing its drift from among vectors of the unit ball in ℝd. The past and present of the path are supposed to be completely observable, while no anticipation of the future is allowed. Imposing a suitable cost on distance from the origin, as well as a cost of effort proportional to the length of the drift vector, ‘reasonable’ procedures turn out to be of the following type: to apply drift of maximal length along the ray towards the origin if the current position is outside a sphere centred at the origin, and to choose zero drift otherwise. It is shown just how to compute the radius of such a sphere in terms of the data of the problem, so that the resulting procedure is optimal.

Let T be a triangle. P be a parallelogram, E be an ellipse, A, B be concentric circles, C, D be concentric dartboard regions, R, S be rectangles of the same orientation, U, V be two finite unions and/or differences of convex regions in the Euclidean plane. Given a function f on [0,∞), let E[/(r), U, V] denote the mean value of f(|u–v|), where |u–v| is the distance between u∊U and v∊V. Using Borel’s overlap technique, a specific distance weight function and a specific equivalence relation, we obtain formulae expressing E[f(r), U, V] in terms of triple integrals, expressing E(rn, U, V), E[f(r), A, V] and E[f(r), R, V] in terms of double integrals, expressing E[f(r), A, B], E[f(r), R, S], E[f(r), T, T], E[f(r), P, P], E(rn, C, D) and E(rn, R, V) in terms of single integrals, and expressing E(rn, R, S), E(rn, P, P), E(rn, T, T), E(rn, E, E) in terms of elementary functions, where n is an integer ≧−1. Many other related results are also given.

The necessary and sufficient conditions for various modes of interactions of the upper and lower schemes with headstarts are derived. The expression for the Laplace transform of the run-length distribution (for both interacting and non-interacting schemes) is obtained and used to develop a method of analysis for general two-sided cumulative sum schemes with headstarts. The results are shown to be relevant in the case when the schemes are supplemented by Shewhart’s control limits.

The Radon transform of a plane domain is a random variable assigning to each line in the plane the chord length of its intersection with the domain. The probability distribution of this random variable does not characterize the domain, but it is shown to characterize a sufficiently asymmetric convex polygon. Under weaker assumptions, a convex polygon is characterized by this distribution, up to a finite number of rearrangements.

Nearest-neighbour random walks on the non-negative integers with transition probabilities p0,1 = 1, pk,k–1 = gk, pk,k+1 = 1– gk (0 < gk < 1, k = 1, 2, …) are studied by use of generating functions and continued fraction expansions. In particular, when (gk) is a periodic sequence, local limit theorems are proved and the harmonic functions are determined. These results are applied to simple random walks on certain trees.