Exact Distribution for the Local Score of One i.i.d. Random Sequence

Let X(1)...X(n) be a sequence of i.i.d. positive or negative integer-valued random variables and H(n) = max(0 < or = i < or = j < or = n)(X(i) +...+ X(j)) be the local score of the sequence. The exact distribution of H(n) is obtained using a simple Markov chain. This result is applied to the scoring of DNA and protein sequences in molecular biology.