The well-known closure concept of Bondy and Chvatal is based on degree-sums of pairs of nonadjacent (independent) vertices. We show that a more general concept due to Ainouche and Christofides can be restated in terms of degree-sums of independent triples. We introduce a closure concept which is based on neighborhood unions of independent triples and which also generalizes the closure concept o...

MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Center for Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (A.S., J.Z., K.Y., Y.T., Y.W., X.W., Y.L.); Institute of Oil Crops Research, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China (A.S.); and Research Centre for Plant RNA Signaling, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Ha...

Cheng-Zhen Wang,1 Hong-Ya Xu,1 Liang Huang,2 and Ying-Cheng Lai1,3,* 1School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA 2School of Physical Science and Technology, and Key Laboratory for Magnetism and Magnetic Materials of MOE, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China 3Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizon...

Background: Malignant otitis externa (MOE) is essentially an osteomyelitis of the temporal bone and surrounding soft tissue that can be life threatening. It is classically caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Objective: To evaluate recent clinical presentations of MOE at the authors' institution. Design: Retrospective review. Participants: Twenty patients (12 men), with a mean age of 65 years at d...

1 Information Security Center, State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P.O. Box 145, Beijing 100876, China 2 Key Laboratory of Network and Information Attack and Defence Technology of MOE, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China 3 National Engineering Laboratory for Disaster Backup and Rec...

This paper presents the design and implementation of a course of action (COA) ontology for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. This ontology supports the commander’s C2 decision making processes for COA design, analysis and selection and represents the key elements of the COA planning process; specifically measures-of-performance (MOP) and measures-of-effectiveness (MOE) for describing COA pla...

Rapid progress has been made toward small interfering RNA (siRNA)-based therapy for human disorders, but rationally optimizing siRNAs for high specificity and potent silencing remains a challenge. In this study, we explored the effect of chemical modification at the cleavage site of siRNAs. We found that modifications at positions 9 and 10 markedly reduced the silencing potency of the unmodifie...

To achieve value-added utilizations of plantation timbers, eucalyptus veneer/high-density polyethylene film composites were prepared, with process-factors (PF) (hot-pressing temperature, HT; hot-pressing duration, HD; hot-pressing pressure, HP; HDPE-film content, HC) and composite-properties (CP) (water-resistant bonding-strength, BS; modulus of rupture, MOR; modulus of elasticity, MOE) investi...

We prove a lemma which allows one to extend results about the additivity of the minimal output entropy from highly symmetric channels to a much larger class. A similar result holds for the maximal output p-norm. Examples are given showing its use in a variety of situations. In particular, we prove the additivity and the multiplicativity for the shifted depolarising channel. A natural and import...

To date, over 100 vomeronasal receptor type 1 (V1R) genes have been identified in rodents. V1R is specifically expressed in the rodent vomeronasal organ (VNO) and is thought to be responsible for pheromone reception. Recently, 21 putatively functional V1R genes were identified in the genome database of the amphibian Xenopus tropicalis. Amphibians are the first vertebrates to possess a VNO. In o...