The distributions of the times to the first common ancestor tmrca is numerically studied for an ecological population model, the extended Moran model. This model has a fixed population size N . The number of descendants is drawn from a beta distribution Beta(α, 2 − α) for various choices of α. This includes also the classical Moran model (α → 0) as well as the uniform distribution (α = 1). Usin...

We construct an individual-based metapopulation model of population genetics featuring migration, mutation, selection, and genetic drift. In the case of a single "island," the model reduces to the Moran model. Using the diffusion approximation and time-scale separation arguments, an effective one-variable description of the model is developed. The effective description bears similarities to the...

Open-audit election protocols have, in recent years, focused on the ballot casting process, where the difficulty lies in proving to the unaided voter that the encrypted ballot faithfully captures her intent. We present MarkPledge2, an evolution of Neff’s MarkPledge scheme and the first efficient, covert-channel-resistant, receipt-free ballot casting scheme that can be used by humans without tru...

The propagation of a beneficial mutation in a spatially extended population is usually studied using the phenomenological stochastic Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piscounov (SFKPP) equation. We derive here an individual-based, stochastic model founded on the spatial Moran process where fluctuations are treated exactly. The mean-field approximation of this model leads to an equation that is differ...

Bacterial decomposition of vascular plant detritus in coastal wetlands results in the conversion of particulate organic matter to dissolved form and causes the release of humic substances into the bulk dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool. WC found that 34% of the DOC accumulating during degradation of salt marsh grass (Spartina alternif7oru) from coastal wetlands of the southeastern U.S. fits t...

In “A Restless Bandit Model for Resource Allocation, Competition and Reservation,” J. Fu, B. Moran, P. G. Taylor study a resource allocation problem with varying requests resources of limited capacity shared by multiple requests. This is modeled as set heterogeneous restless multi-armed bandit problems (RMABPs) connected constraints imposed capacity. Following Whittle’s idea relaxing the Weber ...