In this paper we prove that sub-Gaussian estimates of heat kernels of regular Dirichlet forms are equivalent to the regularity of measures, two-sided bounds of effective resistances and the locality of semigroups, on strongly recurrent compact metric spaces. Upper bounds of effective resistances imply the compact embedding theorem for domains of Dirichlet forms, and give rise to the existence of Green functions with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. Green functions play an important role in our analysis. Our emphasis in this paper is on the analytic aspects of deriving two-sided sub-Gaussian bounds of heat kernels. We also give the probabilistic interpretation for each of the main analytic steps.

We consider a sequence of random graphs constructed by a hierarchical procedure. The construction replaces existing edges by pairs of edges in series or parallel with probability p. We investigate the effective resistance across the graphs, first-passage percolation on the graphs and the Cheeger constants of the graphs as the number of edges tends to infinity. In each case we find a phase transition at

Using the electric network approach, we give closed-form formulas for the expected hitting times in the Ehrenfest urn model.

Using the electric network approach, we give very simple derivations for the expected first passage from the origin to the opposite vertex in the d-cube (i.e. the Ehrenfest urn model) and the Platonic graphs.