We consider cubic graphs formed with k ≥ 2 disjoint claws Ci ∼ K1,3 (0 ≤ i ≤ k−1) such that for every integer i modulo k the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci are joined to the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci−1 and joined to the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci+1. Denote by ti the vertex of degree 3 of Ci and by T the set {t1, t2, ..., tk−1}. In such a way we construct three distinct graphs, na...

We consider cubic graphs formed with k ≥ 2 disjoint claws Ci ∼ K1,3 (0 ≤ i ≤ k−1) such that for every integer i modulo k the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci are joined to the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci−1 and joined to the three vertices of degree 1 of Ci+1. Denote by ti the vertex of degree 3 of Ci and by T the set {t1, t2, ..., tk−1}. In such a way we construct three distinct graphs, na...

Synthetic antioxidants are added to food in the powdered form to preserve it. However these compounds posed serious health concern since they have been associated with causing cancer. Thus using fresh herbs with antioxidant activities would be good alternative. The objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare the total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of both powdered and f...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Flower colour varies within and among populations of the Rocky Mountain columbine, Aquilegia coerulea, in conjunction with the abundance of its two major pollinators, hawkmoths and bumble-bees. This study seeks to understand whether the choice of flower colour by these major pollinators can help explain the variation in flower colour observed in A. coerulea populations. ME...

A graph G is pseudo 2–factor isomorphic if the parity of the number of cycles in a 2–factor is the same for all 2–factors ofG. In [3] we proved that pseudo 2–factor isomorphic k–regular bipartite graphs exist only for k ≤ 3. In this paper we generalize this result for regular graphs which are not necessarily bipartite. We also introduce strongly pseudo 2–factor isomorphic graphs and we prove th...

Given a complete graph Kn = (V, E), with edge weight ce on each edge, we consider the problem of partitioning the vertices of graph Kn into subcliques that each have at least S vertices, so as to minimize the total weight of the edges that have both endpoints in the same subclique. It is an extension of the classic Clique Partition Problem that can be well solved using triangle inequalities, bu...

Sexual dimorphism is one of the most widespread and recognizable patterns of phenotypic variation in the biotic world. Sexual dimorphism in floral display is striking in the dioecious plant Silene latifolia, with males making many, small flowers compared to females. We investigated this dimorphism via artificial selection on two populations to determine whether genetic variation exists within p...

Flower image retrieval is a very important step for computer-aided plant species recognition. In this paper, we propose an efficient segmentation method based on color clustering and domain knowledge to extract flower regions from flower images. For flower retrieval, we use the color histogram of a flower region to characterize the color features of flower and two shape-based features sets, Cen...

Flower color variation among plant populations might reflect adaptation to local conditions such as the interacting animal community. In the northwest Iberian Peninsula, flower color of Gentiana lutea varies longitudinally among populations, ranging from orange to yellow. We explored whether flower color is locally adapted and the role of pollinators and seed predators as agents of selection by...