Efficient Two-Stage Group Testing Algorithms for Genetic Screening

Efficient two-stage group testing algorithms that are particularly suited for rapid and less-expensive DNA library screening and other large scale biological group testing efforts are investigated in this paper. The main focus is on novel combinatorial constructions in order to minimize the number of individual tests at the second stage of a two-stage disjunctive testing procedure. Building on recent work by Levenshtein (2003) and Tonchev (2008), several new infinite classes of such combinatorial designs are presented.Comment: 14 pages; to appear in "Algorithmica". Part of this work has been presented at the ICALP 2011 Group Testing Workshop; arXiv:1106.368

Group Divisible Codes and Their Application in the Construction of Optimal Constant-Composition Codes of Weight Three

The concept of group divisible codes, a generalization of group divisible designs with constant block size, is introduced in this paper. This new class of codes is shown to be useful in recursive constructions for constant-weight and constant-composition codes. Large classes of group divisible codes are constructed which enabled the determination of the sizes of optimal constant-composition codes of weight three (and specified distance), leaving only four cases undetermined. Previously, the sizes of constant-composition codes of weight three were known only for those of sufficiently large length.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 4 table

New Combinatorial Construction Techniques for Low-Density Parity-Check Codes and Systematic Repeat-Accumulate Codes

This paper presents several new construction techniques for low-density parity-check (LDPC) and systematic repeat-accumulate (RA) codes. Based on specific classes of combinatorial designs, the improved code design focuses on high-rate structured codes with constant column weights 3 and higher. The proposed codes are efficiently encodable and exhibit good structural properties. Experimental results on decoding performance with the sum-product algorithm show that the novel codes offer substantial practical application potential, for instance, in high-speed applications in magnetic recording and optical communications channels.Comment: 10 pages; to appear in "IEEE Transactions on Communications

Frame difference families and resolvable balanced incomplete block designs

Frame difference families, which can be obtained via a careful use of cyclotomic conditions attached to strong difference families, play an important role in direct constructions for resolvable balanced incomplete block designs. We establish asymptotic existences for several classes of frame difference families. As corollaries new infinite families of 1-rotational $(pq+1,p+1,1)$-RBIBDs over $\mathbb{F}_{p}^+ \times \mathbb{F}_{q}^+$ are derived, and the existence of $(125q+1,6,1)$-RBIBDs is discussed. We construct $(v,8,1)$-RBIBDs for $v\in\{624,1576,2976,5720,5776,10200,14176,24480\}$, whose existence were previously in doubt. As applications, we establish asymptotic existences for an infinite family of optimal constant composition codes and an infinite family of strictly optimal frequency hopping sequences.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1702.0750

Generalized Balanced Tournament Packings and Optimal Equitable Symbol Weight Codes for Power Line Communications

Generalized balance tournament packings (GBTPs) extend the concept of generalized balanced tournament designs introduced by Lamken and Vanstone (1989). In this paper, we establish the connection between GBTPs and a class of codes called equitable symbol weight codes. The latter were recently demonstrated to optimize the performance against narrowband noise in a general coded modulation scheme for power line communications. By constructing classes of GBTPs, we establish infinite families of optimal equitable symbol weight codes with code lengths greater than alphabet size and whose narrowband noise error-correcting capability to code length ratios do not diminish to zero as the length grows