## Problem 178 — rank:303

**Title:** Ancient-DNA ascertainment and preservation bias

**Added binding assumptions (LaTeX):**

```latex
If the feasible confidence set is empty, report rejection of the preservation/sampling assumptions rather than an interval. Sharp bounds are relative to the stated binning and audited probability envelope, not all possible archaeological histories. Optimizing a finite known feasible set is a standard constrained-inference problem; the residual biological difficulty is trustworthy selection auditing and a design that produces informative, coverage-valid bounds.
```

**Direct edits:** 0. **Fresh external checks:** None; supplied sources retained as provenance.