Beta invariant and variations of chain theorems for matroids

The beta invariant of a matroid was introduced by Crapo in 1967. We first find the lower bound of the beta invariant of 3-connected matroids with rank r and the matroids which attain the lower bound. Second we characterize the matroids with beta invariant 5 and 6. For binary matroids we characterize matroids with beta invariant 7. These results extend earlier work of Oxley. Lastly we partially answer an open question of chromatic uniqueness of wheels and prove a splitting formula for the beta invariant of generalized parallel connection of two matroids. Tutte\u27s Wheel-and-Whirl theorem and Seymour\u27s Splitter theorem give respectively a constructive and structural view of the 3-connected matroids. Geelen and Whittle proved a chain theorem for sequentially 4-connected matroids and Geelen and Zhou proved a chain theorem for weakly 4-connected matroids. From these theorems one can obtain a chain theorem for matroids as well. We prove a chain theorem for sequentially 4-connected and weakly 4-connected matroids

Impact of Transnationalism On Multiracial Challenges and Resilience Among Asian Mixed-Race Adults in the United States

This was a quantitative study which examined past and present transnational activities as predictors of multiracial identity challenges and resilience among second generation U.S. born Asian mixed-race adults. Two hundred seventeen participants completed the following three survey questionnaires: a demographic form, the Multiracial Challenge and Resilience Scale (MCRS; Salahuddin & O’Brien, 2011) and an author-adapted version of the Past and Present TS- Transnationalism Scale (Murphy & Mahalingam, 2004). This study is based on the idea of integrating critical race theory, critical mixed-race studies, and intersectionality of both participants’ and parents’ gender and ethnic/racial identity among self-identified Asian mixed-race individuals. The results showed overall significant correlations between MCRS and TS. No gender of Asian immigrant parents’ effects were found, but the Asian region ones’ parent migrated from led to differences in participants’ childhood and adulthood TS Political and Economic engagements. Participants’ gender moderated the relationship between MCRS and past/present TS. More females identify themselves as being mixed-race and showed a higher level of MCRS resilience than male participants. This study contributes to the fields of marriage and family therapy and immigrant family studies by developing insights into an understudied population: second-generation immigrants of Asian mixed-race descent

Beta Invariant and Chromatic Uniqueness of Wheels

A graph G is chromatically unique if its chromatic polynomial completely determines the graph. An n-spoked wheel, Wn, is shown to be chromatically unique when n ≥ 4 is even [S.-J. Xu and N.-Z. Li, The chromaticity of wheels, Discrete Math. 51 (1984) 207–212]. When n is odd, this problem is still open for n ≥ 15 since 1984, although it was shown by di erent researchers that the answer is no for n = 5, 7, yes for n = 3, 9, 11, 13, and unknown for other odd n. We use the beta invariant of matroids to prove that if M is a 3-connected matroid such that |E(M)| = |E(Wn)| and β (M) = β (M(Wn)), where β (M) is the beta invariant of M, then M ≅ M(Wn). As a consequence, if G is a 3-connected graph such that the chromatic (or flow) polynomial of G equals to the chromatic (or flow) polynomial of a wheel, then G is isomorphic to the wheel. The examples for n = 3, 5 show that the 3-connectedness condition may not be dropped. We also give a splitting formula for computing the beta invariants of general parallel connection of two matroids as well as the 3-sum of two binary matroids. This generalizes the corresponding result of Brylawski [A combinatorial model for series-parallel networks, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 154 (1971) 1–22]

Color difference evaluation for digital pictorial images under various surround conditions

Department of Human and Systems EngineeringNowadays pictorial images are more often shown on displays than on paper. Therefore, displaymanufacturers have been trying to improve the image quality of their displays to increase theirmarket share. To improve the image quality, not only good hardware technology and imageprocessing algorithms but also good color difference equations are needed to predict the overallcolor difference between pictorial images shown on different panels or manipulated using differentimage processing algorithms etc. Color difference equations are also developed for the use ofindustrial purposes. However they were developed in limits of surround condition and applications. The purposes of this research is to clarify the effect of surround condition and magnitude of colordifference on perceptual color difference for complex image. The experiment under four surroundconditions was carried out to achieve these purposes. The collected data by psychophysicalexperiment was used to develop image color difference metric under various surround condition.Before conducting the main experiment, pilot test was conducted to investigate the effect of colordifference magnitude on perceptual image difference. Pilot experiment tested the performance of each conventional color difference equation such asCIE ??E*ab, CMC(l:c) and CIEDE2000 while the psychophysical experiment including wide rangeof color difference stimuli was conducted to evaluate perceptual color difference between originalimage and manipulated image. Twenty observers were participated in the experiment and 195stimuli were used for the magnitude estimation. Main Experiment was investigated how perceptual color difference is shifted by changing surroundluminance level and magnitude of color difference. There are four surround conditions, dark, dim,average and bright. 996 stimuli were prepared for the experiment. 500 randomly selected stimuliwere used for each surround condition. Twenty-three observers were participated in the mainexperiment. They were asked to evaluate the perceived color difference between original andmanipulated images with magnitude estimation method.ope

Applying Lexical Substitution and Text Mining for Bioinspired Engineering Design

Nature has repeated its evolution processes and developed its own “engineering” principles over a long period of time. Bioinspired design starts from the belief that nature has the most effective and optimized problem-solving schemes, which can be applied to human problems directly or indirectly. In summary, bioinspired design is the study of the design process, adapting the structure, behavior, or organic mechanisms of biology to engineering problems. In bioinspired design studies, researchers have sought a way of improving concept generation through texts. Generally, there are two problems in text-based bioinspired design. First, there is a great lexical gap between two areas—biology and engineering. Thus, understanding the context of biological text is compromised, prohibiting analogical transfer between the two domains. Second, the amount of text is too great to be assimilated by engineers. This knowledge gap makes the engineer confused by the extensive information and slows down the design process. The present work tried to apply lexical substitution and text mining theories to effectively process biological text. Regarding the matter of the lexical gap, this research developed an algorithm that translates biological terminology to words or phrases that are understandable to engineers by adapting four lexical sources: WordNet, Wikipedia, the Integrated Taxonomy Information System (ITIS), and WordNik. For the second problem, this research tried to categorize biological text based on morphological solutions by adapting the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) technique. Two main contributions are made in this dissertation. First of all, this work is the first attempt to directly bridge the lexical gap between biology and engineering by translating biological terminology. The existing approach to bioinspired design study involves building a thesaurus or database that connects a few engineering keywords and their biological correspondences. However, since most other biological terms remain unchanged, this research is meaningful as it attempts to overcome this limitation. The second contribution is that this research ameliorates the natural language-based bioinspired concept generation. Specifically, the accessibility to biotexts for bioinspired design seems to be improved by enabling engineers to selectively acquire biological information for their problems

A STUDY ON THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE INTENTION OF BLOG USAGE

Blogs are a new type of media that have recently become popular users on the World Wide Web and have influence throughout society. The purpose of this study is to examine social motivations influencing intention of blog usage. Based on Technology Acceptance Model and Motivation Theory, This study considered perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, reputation, reciprocity, enjoyment of helping, social identity as the determinants of influencing the intention of blog usage. The purposed model was empirically evaluated using online survey data collected from 342 user of popular blog site in Korea (NAVER Blog , cyworld mihompy, daum blog, yahoo blog etc) The results revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, reciprocity, social identity affected directly the intention of blog usage. Also social identity has moderate effect via reciprocity and enjoyment of helping on blog usage. This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of the factors as social motivation that affect the usage of blogs. Practically this study results provide blog service providers useful strategic insights and service guideline to enhance user\u27s intention of blogs

Sudden mode change of permanent pacemaker during living donor liver transplantation - A case report -

Background Pacemakers assist circulation by generating electrical impulses. Patients with pacemakers scheduled to undergo surgery are vulnerable to device-related complications. Therefore, careful perioperative management is required to prevent undesirable events. Case A 66-year-old man with alcohol-related hepatocellular carcinoma was referred for liver transplantation. The pacemaker was inserted preoperatively to manage sick sinus syndrome and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Overall liver transplantation was performed without any adverse events. However, the pacemaker suddenly failed to provide regular pacing rhythm during abdominal closure. Fortunately, the native heart rate was maintained above 70 beats per minute and blood pressure did not fluctuate after pacing failure. After retrospective analysis, the duration setting of preoperative pacemaker reprogramming (24 h) was revealed as the cause of unexpected pacing failure. Conclusions Anesthesiologists should be alert in patients with pacemakers because minor errors may lead to inadvertent failure of pacing or severe hemodynamic instability

Development and Validation of Self-directed Learning Ability Test (SDLAT) for Elementary School Students

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate self-directed learning ability test (SDLAT) for elementary school students considering the theoretical consistency. A total of 507 students of 5th and 6th-grade elementary students in Seoul, Korea were participated in this research. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 23.0 and AMOS WIN 22.0 programs. The data of 200 were used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and 307 data were used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The conclusions were as follows: A SDLAT for elementary school students was developed and validated in this study. The domain of self-directed learning ability was classified into three domains of cognition, affective, and behavior. The sub-factors for each domain and 42 items were developed and then verified for its validity (NFI .824, IFI .906, CFI .905, RMSEA .043). The sub-factors of the cognitive domain were identified as ‘cognitive thinking· metacognition’ and ‘problem solving’. The affective domain included ‘intrinsic motivation’, ‘future-oriented motivation’, and ‘self-efficacy’. The behavioral domain had ‘seeking help’, ‘managing physical environment’, and ‘time management’. The reliability of the total items of the test was Cronbach α .944