Let \(G\) be a graph with vertex set \(V(G)\). An edge coloring \(C\) of \(G\) is called an edge-cover coloring, if for each color, the edges assigned with it form an edge cover of \(G\). The maximum positive integer \(k\) such that \(G\) has a \(k\)-edge-cover coloring is called the edge cover chromatic index of \(G\) and is denoted by \(\chi’_c(G)\). It is well known that \(\min\{d(v) – \mu(v) : v \in V(G)\} \leq \chi’_c(G) \leq \delta(G)\), where \(\mu(v)\) is the multiplicity of \(v\) and \(\delta(G)\) is the minimum degree of \(G\). If \(\chi’_c(G) = \delta(G)\), \(G\) is called a graph of CI class, otherwise \(G\) is called a graph of CII class. In this paper, we give a new sufficient condition for a nearly bipartite graph to be of CI class.

Though the well-known Vizing’s conjecture is not true for directed graphs in general, we show that it is true when the digraph and its reversal contain an efficient dominating set. In this paper, we investigate the existence of such sets in directed tori and infinite grids. We give a complete characterization of efficient dominating sets in the \(3\)-dimensional case and show the nonexistence of efficient \(d\)-dominating sets in directed tori for any \(d > 1\) and any dimension \(n > 1\).

For every two vertices \(u\) and \(v\) in a graph \(G\), a \(u-v\) geodesic is a shortest path between \(u\) and \(v\). Let \(I(u,v)\) denote the set of all vertices lying on a \(u-v\) geodesic. For a vertex subset \(S\), let \(I_G(S)\) denote the union of all \(I_G(u,v)\) for \(u,v \in S\). The geodetic number \(g(G)\) of a graph \(G\) is the minimum cardinality of a set \(S\) with \(I_G(S) = V(G)\). For a digraph \(D\), there is analogous terminology for the geodetic number \(g(D)\). The geodetic spectrum of a graph \(G\), denoted by \(S(G)\), is the set of geodetic numbers over all orientations of graph \(G\). The lower geodetic number is \(g^-(G) = \min S(G)\) and the upper geodetic number is \(g^+(G) = \max S(G)\). The main purpose of this paper is to investigate lower and upper geodetic numbers of graphs. Our main results in this paper are:

1. For every spanning tree \(T\) of a connected graph \(G\), \(g^-(G) \leq \ell(T)\), where \(\ell(T)\) is the number of leaves of \(T\).
2. The conjecture \(g^+(G) \geq g(G)\) is true for chordal graphs, triangle-free graphs and \(4\)-colorable graphs.

We estimate the essential norm of the weighted composition operator \(uC_{\varphi}\) from the weighted Bergman space \(A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B})\) to the weighted space \(H^{\infty}_{\mu}(\mathbb{B})\) on the unit ball \(\mathbb{B}\), when \(p > 1\) and \(\alpha \geq -1\) (for \(\alpha = -1\), \(A^{p}_{\alpha}\) is the Hardy space \(H^{p}(\mathbb{B})\)). We also give a necessary and sufficient condition for the operator \(uC_{\varphi} : A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B}) \to H^{\infty}_{\mu}(B)\) to be compact, and for the operator \(uC_{\varphi} : A^{p}_{\alpha}(\mathbb{B}) \to H^{\infty}_{\mu,0}(\mathbb{B})\) to be bounded or compact, when \(p > 0\), \(\alpha \geq -1\).

Let \(G = (V,E)\) be a graph. A set \(S \subseteq V\) is called a restrained dominating set of \(G\) if every vertex not in \(S\) is adjacent to a vertex in \(S\) and to a vertex in \(V – S\). The restrained domination number of \(G\), denoted by \(\gamma_r(G)\), is the minimum cardinality of a restrained dominating set of \(G\). In this paper, we establish an upper bound on \(\gamma_r(G)\) for a connected graph \(G\) by the probabilistic method.

Any vertex labeling \(f: V \to \{0,1\}\) of the graph \(G = (V,E)\) induces a partial edge labeling \(f^*: E \to \{0,1\}\) defined by \(f^*(uv) = f(u)\) if and only if \(f(u) = f(v)\). The balance index set of \(G\) is defined as \(\{|f^{*{-1}}(0) – f^{*{-1}}(1)|: |f^{-1}(0) – f^{-1}(1)| \leq 1\}\). In this paper, we first determine the balance index sets of rooted trees of height not exceeding two, thereby completely settling the problem for trees with diameter at most four. Next we show how to extend the technique to rooted trees of any height, which allows us to derive a method for determining the balance index set of any tree.

We show that partial permutation decoding can be used, and give explicit \(s\)-PD-sets in the symmetric group, where \(s\) is less than the full error-correction capability of the code, for some classes of binary codes obtained from the adjacency matrices of the graphs with vertices the \(\binom{n}{3}\) \(3\)-subsets of a set of size \(n\) with adjacency defined by the vertices as \(3\)-sets being adjacent if they have a fixed number of elements in common.

Let \(G\) be a simple connected graph. For a subset \(S\) of \(V(G)\) with \(|S| = 2n + 1\), let \(\alpha_{(2n+1)}(G,S)\) denote the graph obtained from \(G\) by contracting \(S\) to a single vertex. The graph \(\alpha_{(2n+1)}(G, S)\) is also said to be obtained from \(G\) by an \(\alpha_{(2n+1)}\)-contraction. For pairwise disjoint subsets \(S_1, S_2, \ldots, S_{2n}\) of \(V(G)\), let \(\beta_n(G, S_1, S_2, \ldots, S_{2n})\) denote the graph obtained from \(G\) by contracting each \(S_i\) (\(i = 1, 2, \ldots, 2n\)) to a single vertex respectively. The graph \(\beta_{2n}(G, S_1, S_2, \ldots, S_{2n})\) is also said to be obtained from \(G\) by a \(\beta_{2n}\)-contraction. In the present paper, based on \(\alpha_{(2n+1)}\)-contraction and \(\beta_{2}\)-contraction, some new characterizations for \(n\)-extendable bipartite graphs are given.

A graph \(G\) is quasi-claw-free if it satisfies the property: \(d(x, y) = 2 \Rightarrow\) there exists \(u \in N(x) \cap N(y)\) such that \(N[u] \subseteq N[x] \cup N[y]\). In this paper, we prove that the circumference of a \(2\)-connected quasi-claw-free graph \(G\) on \(n\) vertices is at least \(\min\{3\delta + 2, n\}\) or \(G \in \mathcal{F}\), where \(\mathcal{F}\) is a class of nonhamiltonian graphs of connectivity \(2\). Moreover, we prove that if \(n \leq 40\), then \(G\) is hamiltonian or \(G \in \mathcal{F}\).

Let \(K_{n,n}\) denote the complete bipartite graph with \(n\) vertices in each part. In this paper, it is proved that there is no cyclic \(m\)-cycle system of \(K_{n,n}\) for \(m \equiv 2 \pmod{4}\) and \(n \equiv 2 \pmod{4}\). As a consequence, necessary and sufficient conditions are determined for the existence of cyclic \(m\)-cycle systems of \(K_{n,n}\) for all integers \(m \leq 30\).