Stein's method is used to obtain two theorems on multivariate normal approximation. Our main theorem, Theorem 1.2, provides a bound on the distance to normality for any non-negative random vector. Theorem 1.2 requires multivariate size bias coupling, which we discuss in studying the approximation of distributions of sums of dependent random vectors. In the univariate case, we briefly illustrate this approach for certain sums of nonlinear functions of multivariate normal variables. As a second illustration, we show that the multivariate distribution counting the number of vertices with given degrees in certain random graphs is asymptotically multivariate normal and obtain a bound on the rate of convergence. Both examples demonstrate that this approach may be suitable for situations involving non-local dependence. We also present Theorem 1.4 for sums of vectors having a local type of dependence. We apply this theorem to obtain a multivariate normal approximation for the distribution of the random p-vector, which counts the number of edges in a fixed graph both of whose vertices have the same given color when each vertex is colored by one of p colors independently. All normal approximation results presented here do not require an ordering of the summands related to the dependence structure. This is in contrast to hypotheses of classical central limit theorems and examples, which involve for example, martingale, Markov chain or various mixing assumptions.

The paper is first concerned with a comparison of the partial sums associated with two sequences of n exchangeable Bernoulli random variables. It then considers a situation where such partial sums are obtained through an iterative procedure of branching type stopped at the first-passage time in a linearly decreasing upper barrier. These comparison results are illustrated with applications to certain urn models, sampling schemes and epidemic processes. A key tool is a non-standard hierarchical class of stochastic orderings between discrete random variables valued in {0, 1,· ··, n}.

The paper introduces an approach focused towards the modelling of dynamics of financial markets. It is based on the three principles of market clearing, exclusion of instantaneous arbitrage and minimization of increase of arbitrage information. The last principle is equivalent to the minimization of the difference between the risk neutral and the real world probability measures. The application of these principles allows us to identify various market parameters, e.g. the risk-free rate of return. The approach is demonstrated on a simple financial market model, for which the dynamics of a virtual risk-free rate of return can be explicitly computed.

Individuals in communities in which different strains of pathogen are circulating can acquire resistance by accumulating immunity to each strain. After considering susceptibility, models of infection and immunity are defined for vector-borne diseases such as malaria and trypanosomiasis. For these models the prevalence of infection, the number of infections per individual, and the mean duration of infection, increase rapidly in young individuals, but decrease in older individuals as immunity is acquired to the various strains of pathogen; the mean interval between successive infections lengthens with age. The bivariate Poisson distribution is shown to be a close approximation to some stochastic processes. The models explain observed cross-sectional patterns of age prevalence, and longitudinal patterns in which individuals typically continue to become infected as they age, albeit with decreasing frequency. In these models the time spent infected depends on parasite diversity, as well as the inoculation and recovery rates. It is shown that control measures can cause an increase in the number of infections and the prevalence of infection in older individuals, and in the average prevalence in the community, even when strain-specific immunity is life-long.

In the epidemic with removal with range r, each site z, once infected, remains so for a period of time Tz, the variables Tz being i.i.d. with mean μ. While infected, a site infects its healthy r-neighbours independently at total rate α. After infection, sites become immune. We show that the critical rate of infection αc (r), above which an epidemic starting from a single site may continue forever, converges to μ–1 as r →∞.

In a famous paper, Dwass (1967) proposed a method to deal with rank order statistics, which constitutes a unifying framework to derive various distributional results. In the present paper an alternative method is presented, which allows us to extend Dwass's results in several ways, namely arbitrary endpoints, horizontal steps and arbitrary probabilities for the three step types. Regarding these extensions the pertaining rank order statistics are extended as well to simple random walk statistics. This method has proved appropriate to generalize all results given by Dwass. Moreover, these discrete time results can be taken as a starting point to derive the corresponding results for randomized random walks by means of a limiting process.

In the Bayesian estimation of higher-order Markov transition functions on finite state spaces, a prior distribution may assign positive probability to arbitrarily high orders. If there are n observations available, we show (for natural priors) that, with probability one, as n → ∞ the Bayesian posterior distribution ‘discriminates accurately' for orders up to β log n, if β is smaller than an explicitly determined β0. This means that the ‘large deviations' of the posterior are controlled by the relative entropies of the true transition function with respect to all others, much as the large deviations of the empirical distributions are governed by their relative entropies with respect to the true transition function. An example shows that the result can fail even for orders β log n if β is large.

We derive the limit behaviour of the distribution tail of the global maximum of a critical Galton–Watson process and also of the expectations of partial maxima of the process, when the offspring law belongs to the domain of attraction of a stable law. Thus the Lindvall (1976) and Athreya (1988) results are extended to the infinite variance case. It is shown that in the general case these two asymptotics are closely related to each other, and the latter follows readily from the former. We also discuss a related problem from the theory of general branching processes.

Using an easy linear-algebraic method, we obtain spectral representations, without the need for eigenvector determination, of the transition probability matrices for completely general continuous time Markov chains with finite state space. Comparing the proof presented here with that of Brown (1991), who provided a similar result for a special class of finite Markov chains, we observe that ours is more concise.

Computationally, when we solve for the stationary probabilities for a countable-state Markov chain, the transition probability matrix of the Markov chain has to be truncated, in some way, into a finite matrix. Different augmentation methods might be valid such that the stationary probability distribution for the truncated Markov chain approaches that for the countable Markov chain as the truncation size gets large. In this paper, we prove that the censored (watched) Markov chain provides the best approximation in the sense that, for a given truncation size, the sum of errors is the minimum and show, by examples, that the method of augmenting the last column only is not always the best.

In this paper various statistics for randomized random walks and their distributions are presented. The distributional results are derived by means of a limiting procedure applied to the pertaining discrete time process, which has been considered in part I of this work (Katzenbeisser and Panny 1996). This basic approach, originally due to Meisling (1958), seems to offer certain technical advantages, since it avoids the use of Laplace transforms and is even simpler than Feller's randomization technique.

A general multi-type branching process where new individuals immigrate according to some point process is considered. An intrinsic submartingale is defined and a convergence result for processes counted with random characteristics is obtained. Some examples are given.

In order to describe the evolution of the attainable structures of a continuous time homogeneous Markov system (HMS) with fixed size, we evaluate the volume of the sets of the attainable structures in Euclidean space in the course of time, and we find the value of the volume asymptotically. Then, using the concept of the volume of the attainable structures, we provide a method to evaluate the ‘age' of the system in continuous and discrete time. We also estimate the evolution of the distance of two (attainable) structures of the system as it changes following the transformations of the structures.

The distributions of nearest neighbour random walks on hypercubes in continuous time t 0 can be expressed in terms of binomial distributions; their limit behaviour for t, N → ∞ is well-known. We study here these random walks in discrete time and derive explicit bounds for the deviation of their distribution from their counterparts in continuous time with respect to the total variation norm. Our results lead to a recent asymptotic result of Diaconis, Graham and Morrison for the deviation from uniformity for N →∞. Our proofs use Krawtchouk polynomials and a version of the Diaconis–Shahshahani upper bound lemma. We also apply our methods to certain birth-and-death random walks associated with Krawtchouk polynomials.

We consider the mathematical properties of a time-discrete stochastic process describing explosive proliferation of DNA repeats in human genetic diseases. The process is constructed using a cascade of Galton–Watson branching processes. The main results concern the probability of absorption and the supergeometric growth of the process in the supercritical case. Examples of simulations are provided.

We consider the following secretary problem: items ranked from 1 to n are randomly selected without replacement, one at a time, and to ‘win' is to stop at an item whose overall rank is less than or equal to s, given only the relative ranks of the items drawn so far. Our method of analysis is based on the existence of an imbedded Markov chain and uses the technique of backwards induction. In principal the approach can be used to give exact results for any value of s; we do the working for s = 3. We give exact results for the optimal strategy, the probability of success and the distribution of T, and the total number of draws when the optimal strategy is implemented. We also give some asymptotic results for these quantities as n → ∞.

In this paper we consider a class of reliability structures which can be efficiently described through (imbedded in) finite Markov chains. Some general results are provided for the reliability evaluation and generating functions of such systems. Finally, it is shown that a great variety of well known reliability structures can be accommodated in this general framework, and certain properties of those structures are obtained on using their Markov chain imbedding description.

The asymptotic behaviour of a superadditive bisexual Galton–Watson branching process is studied. Sufficient conditions for the almost sure and L1 convergence of the suitably normed process are given. Finally, a first approach to the study of the L1 convergence for a superadditive bisexual Galton–Watson branching process under the Z log+Z condition is considered.

A Markov chain is used as a model for a sequence of random experiments. The waiting time for sequence patterns is considered. Recursive-type relations for the distribution of waiting times are obtained.

An aggregated Markov chain is a Markov chain for which some states cannot be distinguished from each other by the observer. In this paper we consider the identifiability problem for such processes in continuous time, i.e. the problem of determining whether two parameters induce identical laws for the observable process or not. We also study the order of a continuous-time aggregated Markov chain, which is the minimum number of states needed to represent it. In particular, we give a lower bound on the order. As a by-product, we obtain results of this kind also for Markov-modulated Poisson processes, i.e. doubly stochastic Poisson processes whose intensities are directed by continuous-time Markov chains, and phase-type distributions, which are hitting times in finite-state Markov chains.