Path Decomposition of Graphs with Given Path Length

A path decomposition of a graph G is a list of paths such that each edge appears in exactly onepath in the list.G is said to admit a {P_l}-decomposition if G can be decomposed into some copies of P_l,whereP_l is a path of length l-1.Similarly,G is said to admit a {P_l,P_k}=decomposition if G can be decomposed intosome copies of P_l or P_k.An k-cycle,denoted by C_k,is a cycle with k vertices.An odd tree is a tree of which allvertices have odd degree.In this paper,it is shown that a connected graph G admits a {P_3,P_4}-decompositionif and only if G is neither a 3-cycle nor an odd tree.This result includes the related result of Yan,Xu andMutu.Moreover,two polynomial algorithms are given to find {P_3}-decomposition and {P_3,P_4}-decompositionof graphs,respectively.Hence,{P_3}-decomposition problem and {P_3,P_4}-decomposition problem of graphs aresolved completely.     

HPLC in the investigation of taxonomic problems. Classification of poplar genotypes

Summary The RP-HPLC technique has been applied to the analysis of the flavonoid content of leaf extracts from various genotypes ofPopulus nigra andPopulus deltoides and from several of their hybrids. Two elution procedures different either as regards gradient program or the type of organic modifier used were checked to optimize the reliability of the results obtained. Before making any identification, the chromatographic profiles proved so typical of each species as to allow of their use as fingerprints in this type of taxonomic problem. Individual identifications were carried out by spiking real samples with known amounts of standard substances. The presence of flavonoid compounds previously identified was confirmed and a few new identifications were proposed.     

Fat-water selective excitation in balanced steady-state free precession using short spatial-spectral RF pulses

Fat suppression is important but challenging in balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) acquisitions, for a number of clinical applications. In the present work, the practicality of performing fat-water selective excitations using spatial-spectral (SPSP) RF pulses in bSSFP sequence is examined. With careful pulse design, the overall duration of these SPSP pulses was kept short to minimize detrimental effects on TR, scan time and banding artifact content. Fat-water selective excitation using SPSP pulses was demonstrated in both phantom and human bSSFP imaging at 3T, and compared to results obtained using a two-point Dixon method. The sequence with SPSP pulses performed better than the two-point Dixon method, in terms of scan time and suppression performance. Overall, it is concluded here that SPSP RF pulses do represent a viable option for fat-suppressed bSSFP imaging.     

Cross-correlations in volume space: Differences between buy and sell volumes

We study the cross-correlations of buy and sell volumes on the Korean stock market in high frequency. We observe that the pulling effects of volumes are as small as that of returns. The properties of the correlations of buy and sell volumes differ. They are explained by the degree of synchronization of stock volumes. Further, the pulling effects on the minimal spanning tree are studied. In minimal spanning trees with directed links, the large pulling effects are clustered at the center, not uniformly distributed. The Epps effect of buy and sell volumes are observed. The reversal of the cross-correlations of buy and sell volumes is also detected.     

Risk models for the Prize Collecting Steiner Tree problems with interval data

Given a connected graph G=(V,E)with a nonnegative cost on each edge in E,a nonnegative prize at each vertex in V,and a target set V′V,the Prize Collecting Steiner Tree(PCST)problem is to find a tree T in G interconnecting all vertices of V′such that the total cost on edges in T minus the total prize at vertices in T is minimized.The PCST problem appears frequently in practice of operations research.While the problem is NP-hard in general,it is polynomial-time solvable when graphs G are restricted to series-parallel graphs.In this paper,we study the PCST problem with interval costs and prizes,where edge e could be included in T by paying cost xe∈[c e,c+e]while taking risk(c+e xe)/(c+e c e)of malfunction at e,and vertex v could be asked for giving a prize yv∈[p v,p+v]for its inclusion in T while taking risk(yv p v)/(p+v p v)of refusal by v.We establish two risk models for the PCST problem with interval data.Under given budget upper bound on constructing tree T,one model aims at minimizing the maximum risk over edges and vertices in T and the other aims at minimizing the sum of risks over edges and vertices in T.We propose strongly polynomial-time algorithms solving these problems on series-parallel graphs to optimality.Our study shows that the risk models proposed have advantages over the existing robust optimization model,which often yields NP-hard problems even if the original optimization problems are polynomial-time solvable.     

The maximum balanced subgraph of a signed graph: Applications and solution approaches

The Maximum Balanced Subgraph Problem (MBSP) is the problem of finding a subgraph of a signed graph that is balanced and maximizes the cardinality of its vertex set. This paper is the first one to discuss applications of the MBSP arising in three different research areas: the detection of embedded structures, portfolio analysis in risk management and community structure. The efficient solution of the MBSP is also in the focus of this paper. We discuss pre-processing routines and heuristic solution approaches to the problem. a GRASP metaheuristic is developed and improved versions of a greedy heuristic are discussed. Extensive computational experiments are carried out on a set of instances from the applications previously mentioned as well as on a set of random instances.     

On the core of cost-revenue games: Minimum cost spanning tree games with revenues

In this paper, we analyze cost sharing problems arising from a general service by explicitly taking into account the generated revenues. To this cost-revenue sharing problem, we associate a cooperative game with transferable utility, called cost-revenue game. By considering cooperation among the agents using the general service, the value of a coalition is defined as the maximum net revenues that the coalition may obtain by means of cooperation. As a result, a coalition may profit from not allowing all its members to get the service that generates the revenues. We focus on the study of the core of cost-revenue games. Under the assumption that cooperation among the members of the grand coalition grants the use of the service under consideration to all its members, it is shown that a cost-revenue game has a nonempty core for any vector of revenues if, and only if, the dual game of the cost game has a large core. Using this result, we investigate minimum cost spanning tree games with revenues. We show that if every connection cost can take only two values (low or high cost), then, the corresponding minimum cost spanning tree game with revenues has a nonempty core. Furthermore, we provide an example of a minimum cost spanning tree game with revenues with an empty core where every connection cost can take only one of three values (low, medium, or high cost).     

Holomorphic mappings preserving Minkowski functionals

We show that the equality _m1(f(x))=_m2(g(x))$m_1\left(f\left(x\right)\right)=m_2\left(g\left(x\right)\right)$ for x$x$ in a neighborhood of a point a$a$ remains valid for all x$x$ provided that f$f$ and g$g$ are open holomorphic maps, f(a)=g(a)=0$f\left(a\right)=g\left(a\right)=0$ and _m1,_m2$m_1,m_2$ are Minkowski functionals of bounded balanced domains. Moreover, a polynomial relation between f$f$ and g$g$ is obtained.     

Efficient exponential-time algorithms for edit distance between unordered trees

The edit distance problem for rooted unordered trees is known to be NP-hard. Based on this fact, this paper studies exponential-time algorithms for the problem. For a general case, an $O(\min ({1.26}^{n_1+n_2},2^{b_1+b_2}\cdot \text{<mi mathvariant="italic" is="true">poly</mi>}(n_1,n_2)))$ time algorithm is presented, where $n_1$ and $n_2$ are the numbers of nodes and $b_1$ and $b_2$ are the numbers of branching nodes in two input trees. This algorithm is obtained by a combination of dynamic programming, exhaustive search, and maximum weighted bipartite matching. For bounded degree trees over a fixed alphabet, it is shown that the problem can be solved in $O({(1+ϵ)}^{n_1+n_2})$ time for any fixed $ϵ>0$. This result is achieved by avoiding duplicate calculations for identical subsets of small subtrees.