The aim of this paper is to solve the basic stochastic shortest-path problem (SSPP) for Markov chains (MCs) with countable state space and then apply the results to a class of nearest-neighbor MCs on the lattice state space <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$$\mathbb Z \times \mathbb Z $$</EquationSource> </InlineEquation> whose only moves are one step up,...</equationsource></inlineequation>

The aim of this paper is to solve the basic stochastic shortest-path problem (SSPP) for Markov chains (MCs) with countable state space and then apply the results to a class of nearest-neighbor MCs on the lattice state space $$\mathbb Z \times \mathbb Z $$ whose only moves are one step up, down,...

We consider the group testing problem for a finite population of possibly defective items with the objective of sampling a prespecified demanded number of nondefective items at minimum cost.Group testing means that items can be pooled and tested together; if the group comes out clean, all items...

We study several group testing models with and without processing times.The objective is to choose an optimal group size for pooled screening of a contaminated population so as to collect a prespeciffied number of good items from it with minimumtesting expenditures.The tested groups that are...