Description:
A (delta, g)-cage is a delta-regular graph with girth g and with the least possible number of vertices. We prove that all (delta, g)-cages are r-connected with r >= root(delta + 1) for g >= 7 odd. This result supports the conjecture of Fu, Huang and Rodger that all (delta; g)-cages are delta-connected. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Description:
Venture capital in Asia has exhibited remarkable growth over the last two decades. Researchers and practitioners have, however, expressed doubts as to whether what is being reported as venture capital in Asia can really be classified as such. Authors of scholarly studies often avoid this debate and, consequently, fail to caution readers about the applicability of their research findings. Through an exploration of the history, development, and composition of venture capital in Asia, this article not only confirms significant differences between Asian and traditional venture capital, but also finds that venture capital in Asia differs little from what is commonly called private equity. As such, a need exists within the venture capital literature to recognize this peculiarity of the Asian venture capital market. Moreover, venture capitalists considering expansion into Asia must comprehend the nature of the Asian market in order to avoid disillusionment and frustrations which may result from inadequate understanding.
Description:
The concepts of ecosystem regime shifts, thresholds and alternative or multiple stable states are used extensively in the ecological and environmental management literature. When applied to aquatic ecosystems, these terms are used inconsistently reflecting differing levels of supporting evidence among ecosystem types. Although many aquatic ecosystems around the world have become degraded, the magnitude and causes of changes, relative to the range of historical variability, are poorly known. A working group supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) reviewed 135 papers on freshwater ecosystems to assess the evidence for pressure-induced non-linear changes in freshwater ecosystems; these papers used terms indicating sudden and non-linear change in their titles and key words, and so was a positively biased sample. We scrutinized papers for study context and methods, ecosystem characteristics and focus, types of pressures and ecological responses considered, and the type of change reported (i.e., gradual, non-linear, hysteretic or irreversible change). There was little empirical evidence for regime shifts and changes between multiple or alternative stable states in these studies although some shifts between turbid phytoplankton-dominated states and clear-water, macrophyte-dominated states were reported in shallow lakes in temperate climates. We found limited understanding of the subtleties of the relevant theoretical concepts and encountered few mechanistic studies that investigated or identified cause-and-effect relationships between ecological responses and nominal pressures. Our results mirror those of reviews for estuarine, nearshore and marine aquatic ecosystems, demonstrating that although the concepts of regime shifts and alternative stable states have become prominent in the scientific and management literature, their empirical underpinning is weak outside of a specific environmental setting. The application of these concepts in future research and management applications should include evidence on the mechanistic links between pressures and consequent ecological change. Explicit consideration should also be given to whether observed temporal dynamics represent variation along a continuum rather than categorically different states.
Description:
Tropical rainforests have been disappearing at an alarming rate. In addition to preserving remaining tropical rainforests, we need to convert degraded and abandoned pasturelands into secondary forests. To accelerate this, human intervention in the recovery process is essential. In this review paper we (i) encapsulate some of the problems, which might surface when converting abandoned land to secondary forest. (ii) Look at some of the restoration techniques used in restoration programs and propose additional techniques for consideration. Major barriers to natural regeneration on abandoned and degraded pasturelands are: weed infestation, lack of indigenous soil seed bank, lack of seed supply/movement, soil compaction, depletion of soil nutrients and unsuitable microclimate and microhabitat. Although several restoration techniques have been recommended, most restoration programs have been carried out using native seedling transplants to accelerate natural recruitment. Most restoration groups in the tropics are still in the initial stages of determining which species or species combination to chose to gain maximum benefit. On the other hand restoration ecologists are struggling to detect which techniques are most appropriate to restore degraded and abandoned pasturelands. Our review shows that there is immediate need for further research and development on restoration techniques by examining the ecological and economic effectiveness of: direct seeding, stem cuttings using native pioneer or climax species and simple manipulation such as displacing branches of pioneer species with mature seeds on abandoned and degraded pasturelands and artificial perching to accelerate natural regeneration. These techniques are essential to successfully heal the wound humans have inflicted on the most spectacular and species-rich ecosystems on earth.
Description:
Tropical rainforests have been disappearing at an alarming rate. In addition to preserving remaining tropical rainforests, we need to convert degraded and abandoned pasturelands into secondary forests. To accelerate this, human intervention in the recovery process is essential. In this review paper we (i) encapsulate some of the problems, which might surface when converting abandoned land to secondary forest. (ii) Look at some of the restoration techniques used in restoration programs and propose additional techniques for consideration. Major barriers to natural regeneration on abandoned and degraded pasturelands are: weed infestation, lack of indigenous soil seed bank, lack of seed supply/movement, soil compaction, depletion of soil nutrients and unsuitable microclimate and microhabitat. Although several restoration techniques have been recommended, most restoration programs have been carried out using native seedling transplants to accelerate natural recruitment. Most restoration groups in the tropics are still in the initial stages of determining which species or species combination to chose to gain maximum benefit. On the other hand restoration ecologists are struggling to detect which techniques are most appropriate to restore degraded and abandoned pasturelands. Our review shows that there is immediate need for further research and development on restoration techniques by examining the ecological and economic effectiveness of: direct seeding, stem cuttings using native pioneer or climax species and simple manipulation such as displacing branches of pioneer species with mature seeds on abandoned and degraded pasturelands and artificial perching to accelerate natural regeneration. These techniques are essential to successfully heal the wound humans have inflicted on the most spectacular and species-rich ecosystems on earth.
Description:
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard adopts several new approaches to achieve higher coding efficiency (approximately 50% bit-rate reduction) compared to its predecessor H.264/AVC with same perceptual image quality. Huge computational time has also increased due to the algorithmic complexity of HEVC compared to H.264/AVC. However, it is really a demanding task to reduce the encoding time while preserving the similar quality of the video sequences. In this paper, we propose a novel efficient intermode selection technique and incorporate into HEVC framework to predict motion estimation and motion compensation modes between current and reference blocks and perform faster inter mode selection based on three dissimilar motion types in divergent video sequences. Instead of exploring and traversing all the modes exhaustively, we merely select a subset of candidate modes and the final mode from the selected subset is determined based on their lowest Lagrangian cost function. The experimental results reveal that average encoding time can be downscaled by 40% with similar rate-distortion performance compared to the exhaustive mode selection strategy in HEVC.
Description:
The purpose of this study was to present a new methodology for the measurement of agility for netball that is considered more ecologically valid than previous agility tests. Specifically, the agility performance of highly-skilled (n=12), moderately-skilled (n=12) and lesser-skilled players (n=8) when responding to a life-size, interactive video display of a netball player initiating a pass was compared to a traditional, pre-planned agility movement where no external stimulus was present. The total movement times and decision times of the players were the primary dependent measures of interest. A second purpose of the research was to determine the test-retest reliability of the testing approach. Results revealed significant differences existed between the 2 test conditions demonstrating that they were measuring different types of agility. The highly-skilled group was significantly faster in both the reactive and planned test conditions relative to the lesser-skilled group, while the moderately-skilled group was significantly faster than the lesser-skilled group in the reactive test condition. The decision time component within the reactive test condition revealed that the highly-skilled players made significantly faster decisions than the lesser-skilled players. It is reasoned that it is this decision-making component of reactive agility that contributes to the significant differences between the two test conditions. The testing approach was shown to have good test-retest reliability with an intra-class correlation of r= .83.
Comparison of fuel economies of high efficiency diesel and hydrogen engines powering a compact car with a flywheel based kinetic energy recovery systems
Description:
IIntroducing a new concept of (®, ¯)-fairness, which allows for a bounded fairness compromise, so that a source is allocated a rate neither less than 0 · ® · 1, nor more than ¯ ¸ 1, times its fair share, this paper provides a framework to optimize efficiency (utilization, throughput or revenue) subject to fairness constraints in a general telecommunications network for an arbitrary fairness criterion and cost functions. We formulate a non-linear program (NLP) that finds the optimal bandwidth allocation by maximizing efficiency subject to (®, ¯)-fairness constraints. This leads to what we call an efficiency-fairness function, which shows the benefit in efficiency as a function of the extent to which fairness is compromised. To solve the NLP we use two algorithms. The first is a well known branch-and-bound-based algorithm called Lipschitz Global Optimization and the second is a recently developed algorithm called Algorithm for Global Optimization Problems (AGOP). We demonstrate the applicability of the framework to a range of example from sharing a single link to efficiency fairness issues associated with serving customers in remote communities.
Description:
IIntroducing a new concept of (®, ¯)-fairness, which allows for a bounded fairness compromise, so that a source is allocated a rate neither less than 0 · ® · 1, nor more than ¯ ¸ 1, times its fair share, this paper provides a framework to optimize efficiency (utilization, throughput or revenue) subject to fairness constraints in a general telecommunications network for an arbitrary fairness criterion and cost functions. We formulate a non-linear program (NLP) that finds the optimal bandwidth allocation by maximizing efficiency subject to (®, ¯)-fairness constraints. This leads to what we call an efficiency-fairness function, which shows the benefit in efficiency as a function of the extent to which fairness is compromised. To solve the NLP we use two algorithms. The first is a well known branch-and-bound-based algorithm called Lipschitz Global Optimization and the second is a recently developed algorithm called Algorithm for Global Optimization Problems (AGOP). We demonstrate the applicability of the framework to a range of example from sharing a single link to efficiency fairness issues associated with serving customers in remote communities.
Description:
Omega-3 fatty acids and probiotic bacteria were co-encapsulated in a single whey protein isolate (WPI)-gum Arabic (GA) complex coacervate microcapsule. Tuna oil (0) and Lactobacillus casei 431 (P) were used as models of omega-3 and probiotic bacteria, respectively. The co-microcapsules (WPI-P-O-GA) and L. casei containing microcapsules (WPI-P-GA) were converted into powder by using spray and freeze drying. The viability of L. casei was significantly higher in WPI-P-O-GA co-microcapsules than in WPI-P-GA. The oxidative stability of tuna oil was significantly higher in spray dried co-capsules than in freeze dried ones. Crown Copyright (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The association of avoidance coping style, and perceived mother and father support with anxiety/depression among late adolescents : Applicability of resiliency models