Given an i.i.d. sequence X1,X2, … with common distribution function (d.f.) F, the usual non-parametric estimator of F is the e.d.f. Fn; where Uo is the d.f. of the unit mass at zero. An admissible perturbation of the e.d.f., say , is obtained if Uo is replaced by a d.f. , where is a sequence of d.f.'s converging weakly to Uo. Such perturbed e.d.f.′s arise quite naturally as integrals of non-parametric density estimators, e.g. as . It is shown that if F satisfies some smoothness conditions and the perturbation is not too drastic then ‘has the Chung–Smirnov property'; i.e., with probability one, 1. But if the perturbation is too vigorous then this property is lost: e.g., if F is the uniform distribution and Hn is the d.f. of the unit mass at n–α then the above lim sup is ≦ 1 or = ∞, depending on whether or

A road traffic model with restricted passing, formulated by Newell (1966), is described by conditional cluster point processes and analytically handled by generating functionals of point processes.

The traffic distributions in either space or time are in equilibrium, if the fast cars form a Poisson process with constant intensity combined with Poisson-distributed queues behind the slow cars (Brill (1971)). It is shown that this state of equilibrium is stable, which means that this state will be reached asymptotically for general initial traffic distributions. Furthermore the queues behind the slow cars dissolve asymptotically like independent Poisson processes with diminishing rate, also independent of the process of non-queuing cars. To get these results limit theorems for conditional cluster point processes are formulated.

An alternative approach to the derivation of a general class of results in carrier-borne epidemic theory is presented. Some insight can be gained into the basic structure of carrier-borne epidemics and the method indicates which other problems of a similar type could yield to analysis.

A limit theorem of Kurtz for perturbed operator semigroups is applied to show that the two-locus diffusion model in population genetics (allowing for selection, mutation, and migration) converges to a linkage-equilibrium diffusion model as Nc →∞, where N is the population size and c is the recombination fraction; in fact, with an appropriate change of variables, the limiting diffusion is what has been called the independent-loci diffusion model. This generalizes a result of Littler.

The new concept of embedded level crossings is combined with the old principle of stationary set balance to produce an alternative approach for obtaining the steady-state distribution of the level in a dam with general release rule. The method yields the steady state distribution of the customer waiting time in the GI/G/1 queue as a special case. Results for a dam in which the instantaneous release rate is proportional to the level, and for the M/G/1, GI/M/1, Ek/M/1 and D/M/1 queues are derived using the new technique.

The propagation rate of the one-dimensional stochastic simple epidemic converges almost surely to a front velocity for the epidemic. Percolation methods are used in the proof.

We provide a formal proof of a conclusion due to Abakuks (1974) which states that the expected number of survivors in Downton's carrier-borne epidemic model approaches the limit (ρ /π)δ as the initial number of susceptibles tends to infinity. Here ρ denotes the relative removal rate for carriers, π denotes the conditional probability that an infected susceptible will become a carrier, δ denotes the Kronecker delta function and denotes the initial number of carriers.

For a supercritical branching process x = {xn; n ≧ 0, x0 = 1} with random environments, define when xn > 0; and = 1 when xn = 0. When x is assumed to satisfy the standard regularity assumptions, under the non-extinction hypothesis, is a strongly consistent and asymptotically unbiased estimator for the criticality parameter π and is asymptotically normal. A strongly consistent estimator, is also proposed for the associated variance, σ2.

Start a Bellman–Harris branching process from one or several ancestors, whose ages are identically distributed random variables. Assume that the life-length distribution decays more quickly than exponentially and that the distribution of ages at start does not give too much mass to high ages (in a sense to be made precise). Then, if the expected population size is an exponential function of time, the ages must follow the stable age distribution of the process.

In a previous paper the author derived some results describing the tail-behavior of the busy time distribution function B of a stable M/G/1 queue in heavy traffic, i.e., some results were given for B (t), t large. In this paper some complementary results are given, in the same heavy-traffic situation, for B (t), t small.

In this note we are concerned with the rate of extinction of certain continuous-time birth-death processes on the positive integers with absorption at 0. The class we deal with includes birth-death processes with mean holding time h(i) at i such that h (i)∼ i–α as i →∞, 0 ≦ α< 1. In general, our result estimates to within a constant multiple the probability of non-extinction by time t. For h(i)∼ i–α, the result states that the probability of non-extinction is of order t−1/(2-α) We give an application to interacting particle systems.

This paper presents the general properties of the semi-Markovian manpower model in continuous time. The asymptotic relation for the population numbers in various grades is based on the forces of transition zij(u) from state i to state j at duration u.

Suppose that n persons each know a different piece of information, and that whenever a pair of persons talk on the telephone each tells the other all the information that he knows at the time. If calls are made at random, we show that the expected number of calls necessary until everyone knows all n pieces of information is asymptotically 1.5 n log n. This sharpens an earlier result of J. W. Moon.

Classical epidemic models have invariably proved to be mathematically intractable. By considering the distribution of the number of infectives in a simple epidemic process as a convolution of exponential waiting times, the solution to the classical model is obtained easily giving more insight into the underlying structure. The idea can be extended to other simple epidemic models.

Some characterizations of continuous and discrete exponential families of distributions are given. These characterizations are used to obtain some limit theorems.

We give a simple expression for the joint probability density of: (a) the maximum value Y = max [X(t), 0 ≦ t ≦ T); (b) its location ; (c) the endpoint X(T), where X(t) = Xc(t) is a Wiener process with drift, Xc(t) = W(t) + ct, 0 ≦ t ≦ T. That is, we find the density p(θ, y, x) = p(θ, y, x; c, T) of , Y, X(T), p(θ, y, x; , Xc(T) ∈ dx) is given by, 0 < θ < T, x ≦ y, 0 < y,

Poisson limit theorems for U-statistics are studied. A general rate of convergence is obtained; this rate is improved for the special case where the U-statistic arises from the consideration of distances between uniformly distributed points in a well-behaved plane region.

Kendall [2] gave a thorough discussion of De Finetti constants for a sequence (finite or infinite) of exchangeable events. Galambos [1] and Ridler-Rowe [3] also found some interesting results in this area. In this paper, we intend to give a necessary and sufficient condition for a finite sequence of exchangeable events to be extendable to an infinite sequence of exchangeable events.

Råde considered a parallel system with n components in a random environment. The shocks cause the components to fail with certain probabilities. This paper considers the replacement policy for the above system in which it is exchanged before failure if the total number of failed components is more than k, and it is replaced if all of n components have failed. An optimum number of k which will minimize the expected cost is obtained. A numerical example is finally presented.

This paper studies a generalization of the GI/G/1 queueing system in which the inter-arrival times are not necessarily identically distributed and there is a random set-up time for customers who arrive when the server is idle. A recursive scheme is derived to obtain the distribution of the actual waiting time of each customer in the system.