Paley-Littlewood decomposition for sectorial operators and interpolation spaces

We prove Paley-Littlewood decompositions for the scales of fractional powers of $0$-sectorial operators $A$ on a Banach space which correspond to Triebel-Lizorkin spaces and the scale of Besov spaces if $A$ is the classical Laplace operator on $L^p(\mathbb{R}^n).$We use the $H^\infty$-calculus, spectral multiplier theorems and generalized square functions on Banach spaces and apply our results to Laplace-type operators on manifolds and graphs, Schr\"odinger operators and Hermite expansion.We also give variants of these results for bisectorial operators and for generators of groups with a bounded $H^\infty$-calculus on strips.Comment: 2nd version to appear in Mathematische Nachrichten, Mathematical News / Mathematische Nachrichten, Wiley-VCH Verlag, 201

Confidence intervals for average success probabilities

We provide Buehler-optimal one-sided and some valid two-sided confidence intervals for the average success probability of a possibly inhomogeneous fixed length Bernoulli chain, based on the number of observed successes. Contrary to some claims in the literature, the one-sided Clopper-Pearson intervals for the homogeneous case are not completely robust here, not even if applied to hypergeometric estimation problems.Comment: Revised version for: Probability and Mathematical Statistics. Two remarks adde

Explicit bounds for the approximation error in Benford's law

Benford's law states that for many random variables X > 0 its leading digit D = D(X) satisfies approximately the equation P(D = d) = log_{10}(1 + 1/d) for d = 1,2,...,9. This phenomenon follows from another, maybe more intuitive fact, applied to Y := log_{10}(X): For many real random variables Y, the remainder U := Y - floor(Y) is approximately uniformly distributed on [0,1). The present paper provides new explicit bounds for the latter approximation in terms of the total variation of the density of Y or some derivative of it. These bounds are an interesting alternative to traditional Fourier methods which yield mostly qualitative results. As a by-product we obtain explicit bounds for the approximation error in Benford's law.Comment: 16 pages, one figur

Spectral multiplier theorems and averaged R-boundedness

Let $A$ be a $0$-sectorial operator with a bounded $H^\infty(\Sigma\_\sigma)$-calculus for some $\sigma \in (0,\pi),$ e.g. a Laplace type operator on $L^p(\Omega),\: 1 < p < \infty,$ where $\Omega$ is a manifold or a graph. We show that $A$ has a H{\"o}rmander functional calculus if and only if certain operator families derived from the resolvent $(\lambda - A)^{-1},$ the semigroup $e^{-zA},$ the wave operators $e^{itA}$ or the imaginary powers $A^{it}$ of $A$ are $R$-bounded in an $L^2$-averaged sense. If $X$ is an $L^p(\Omega)$ space with $1 \leq p < \infty,$ $R$-boundedness reduces to well-known estimates of square sums.Comment: Error in the title correcte

Coding Strategies for Noise-Free Relay Cascades with Half-Duplex Constraint

Two types of noise-free relay cascades are investigated. Networks where a source communicates with a distant receiver via a cascade of half-duplex constrained relays, and networks where not only the source but also a single relay node intends to transmit information to the same destination. We introduce two relay channel models, capturing the half-duplex constraint, and within the framework of these models capacity is determined for the first network type. It turns out that capacity is significantly higher than the rates which are achievable with a straightforward time-sharing approach. A capacity achieving coding strategy is presented based on allocating the transmit and receive time slots of a node in dependence of the node's previously received data. For the networks of the second type, an upper bound to the rate region is derived from the cut-set bound. Further, achievability of the cut-set bound in the single relay case is shown given that the source rate exceeds a certain minimum value.Comment: Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Toronto, ON, Canada, July 6 - 11, 200

Capacity for Half-Duplex Line Networks with Two Sources

The focus is on noise-free half-duplex line networks with two sources where the first node and either the second node or the second-last node in the cascade act as sources. In both cases, we establish the capacity region of rates at which both sources can transmit independent information to a common sink. The achievability scheme presented for the first case is constructive while the achievability scheme for the second case is based on a random coding argument.Comment: Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Austin, TX, USA, June 12 - 18, 201

Unguarded Recursion on Coinductive Resumptions

We study a model of side-effecting processes obtained by starting from a monad modelling base effects and adjoining free operations using a cofree coalgebra construction; one thus arrives at what one may think of as types of non-wellfounded side-effecting trees, generalizing the infinite resumption monad. Correspondingly, the arising monad transformer has been termed the coinductive generalized resumption transformer. Monads of this kind have received some attention in the recent literature; in particular, it has been shown that they admit guarded iteration. Here, we show that they also admit unguarded iteration, i.e. form complete Elgot monads, provided that the underlying base effect supports unguarded iteration. Moreover, we provide a universal characterization of the coinductive resumption monad transformer in terms of coproducts of complete Elgot monads.Comment: 47 pages, extended version of http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S157106611500079

Ethics and the credit insurance industry

Student Number : 0215239Y - MA research project - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of HumanitiesThe purpose of this report is to investigate whether ethics is important to the credit insurance industry and to consider the role a code of ethics can play in helping to make better decisions. The conclusions that I reach are that ethics plays a vital role in building and sustaining a healthy credit insurance business and that a well designed and managed ethics policy is an invaluable tool in running an ethical business and in protecting the reputation and long term viability of a credit insurer. The report begins by providing - in part I - a brief outline of the major ethical theories including short reviews of the two closely related subjects of corporate governance and sustainable development. It continues by discussing the impact of ethics on business in general. I commence the heart of the report by examining in part II ethics in the credit insurance industry, by defining credit insurance and describing the special roles it plays in national and international economies. I then focus on the pertinent operational aspects of a credit insurance business, i.e. marketing and sales, underwriting, claims and reinsurance with particular reference to the role ethics can and should play in each of them. By drawing together the outcomes of these various deliberations the basic guidelines for the drafting of codes of ethics in the credit insurance industry will be developed (obviously each company has to design its own code in line with its own corporate culture, values and circumstances). Finally I attempt to show the benefits a well drafted and properly managed code can have for a credit insurer (part III)