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Consider an age-dependent, single-species branching process defined by a progeny number distribution, and a lifetime distribution associated with each independent particle. In this paper, we focus on the associated inverse problem where one wishes to formally solve for the progeny number distribution or the lifetime distribution that defines the Bellman-Harris branching process. We derive results for the existence and uniqueness (the identifiability) of these two distributions given one of two types of information: the extinction time probability of the entire process (extinction time distribution), or the distribution of the total number of particles at one fixed time. We demonstrate that perfect knowledge of the distribution of extinction times allows us to formally determine either the progeny number distribution or the lifetime distribution. Furthermore, we show that these constructions are unique. We then consider “data” consisting of a perfectly known total number distribution given at one specific time. For a process with known progeny number distribution and exponentially distributed lifetimes, we show that the rate parameter is identifiable. For general lifetime distributions, we also show that the progeny distribution is globally unique. Our results are presented through four theorems, each describing the constructions in the four distinct cases.

Comparing DNA and protein sequence groups plays an important role in biological evolutionary relationship research. Despite many methods available for sequence comparison, only a few can be used for group comparison. In this study, we propose a novel approach using convex hulls. We use statistical information contained within the sequences to represent each sequence as a point in high dimensional space. We find that the points belonging to one biological group are located in a different region of space than points belonging to other biological groups. To be more precise, the convex hull of the points from one group are disjoint from the convex hulls of points from other groups. This finding allows us to do phylogenetic analysis for groups in an efficient way. Five different theorems are presented for checking whether two convex hulls intersect or are disjoint. Test results for datasets related to HRV, HPV, Ebolavirus, PKC and protein phosphatase domains demonstrate that our method performs well and provides a new tool for studying group phylogeny. More significantly, the convex analysis presents a new way to search for sequences belonging to a biological group by examining points within the group’s convex hull.

The convergence to steady state solutions of the Euler equations for weighted compact nonlinear schemes (WCNS) [Deng X. and Zhang H. (2000), J. Comput. Phys. 165, 22-44 and Zhang S., Jiang S and Shu C.-W. (2008), J. Comput. Phys. 227, 7294-7321] is studied through numerical tests. Like most other shock capturing schemes, WCNS also suffers from the problem that the residue can not settle down to machine zero for the computation of the steady state solution which contains shock waves but hangs at the truncation error level. In this paper, the techniques studied in [Zhang S. and Shu. C.-W. (2007), J. Sci. Comput. 31, 273-305 and Zhang S., Jiang S and Shu. C.-W. (2011), J. Sci. Comput. 47, 216-238], to improve the convergence to steady state solutions for WENO schemes, are generalized to the WCNS. Detailed numerical studies in one and two dimensional cases are performed. Numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques when applied to WCNS. The residue of various order WCNS can settle down to machine zero for typical cases while the small post-shock oscillations can be removed.