Search

The structure and mechanical properties of the stomatopod dactyl club have been extensively studied for its extreme impact tolerance, but a systematic, in situ, investigation on the multiscale mechanical responses under high-speed impact has not been reported. Here we reveal the full dynamic deformation and crack evolution process within projectile impacted dactyl using combined fast 2D x-ray imaging and high resolution ex-situ tomography We show hydration states can result in significantly different toughening mechanisms inside dactyl under dynamic loading. We find a previously unreported 3D interlocking structural design in the impact surface and impact region using nano x-ray tomography (nano-CT). Experimental results and dynamic finite element modeling (DFEM) suggest this unique structure plays an important role in resisting catastrophic structure damage and hindering crack propagation. Our work will help to understand the key toughening strategies of biological materials and provide valuable information for biomimetic manufacturing of impact resistant materials in general.

Biologically mineralized composites offer inspiration for the design of next generation structural materials due to their environmentally friendly synthesis, low density, and combination of high stiffness and toughness, currently unmatched by engineering technologies. Such properties are the result of hierarchical structuring and well-defined compositional and mechanical gradients afforded by the organism’s ability to control the self-assembly and nucleation and growth of organic and inorganic materials, respectively. Here, we investigate structure-mechanical property relationships of two incredibly damage-tolerant and impact-resistant bio-composite materials: the mantis shrimp dactyl club and telson, which resist catastrophic failure from repeated high-energy impacts and cavitation from one of the fastest striking events observed in nature. We identify numerous multi-length scale architectural designs that play key roles in imparting stiffness, compliance as well as delocalizing stress and enhancing toughness. These design cues are then translated and implemented into biomimetic composite materials that are fabricated using traditional fiber-reinforced composites processing as well as advanced direct ink write additive manufacturing. The ability for these biomimetic composites to demonstrate enhanced damage-tolerance over traditional designs is then assess through mechanical testing. Such findings may prove useful for the on-going design and fabrication of lightweight structural materials possessing improved damage-tolerance.

Mantis shrimps use their dactyl club to strike multiple high-velocity impacts against stiff and hard surfaces. To sustain the loads and dissipate energy, their club has evolved a complex multiscale organization segmented in an impact surface, an impact region, and a periodic region. Composed essentially of nanoparticles, mineralized chitin microfibers, and proteins, each region exhibits microstructural specificities linked to energy dissipating mechanisms. Fabricating synthetic materials that exploit similar organizations and mechanisms could lead to the development of lightweight impact-resistant strategies for a multitude of applications. To this aim, the microstructure and properties of the natural dactyl club and its key toughening mechanisms are reviewed, as well as current and potential fabrication approaches. Challenges and limitations of those approaches are discussed to hopefully help guide future research on bioinspired impact-resistant materials. National Research Foundation (NRF) The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Research Foundation, Singapore, with the Fellowship NRFF12-2020-0006

In the fourth century CE, Juvencus, a Spaniard priest, was responsible for inaugurating the tradition of the so-called biblical epics with his only surviving work – the Euangeliorum libri quattuor – which is dedicated to narrating Christ’s life in dactylic hexameters. Given this novelty, the poet uses the preface to situate his work in relation to previous poets, justifying his endeavor and summarizing his choices for the text construction. Addressing the information presented and the way it is done, we propose an analysis of this portion of his poem in order to demonstrate how the author pursues this process using common themes of previous poetry at the same time that he rivals with it. It is observed, as an example, that the programmatic invocation to the Muses is replaced by an appeal to the Holy Spirit, and the traditional Greek springs from which inspiration flows, by the Jordan River.

The study was conducted using 800 adult local chickens comprising 355 males and 445 females, which were obtained from 2 major markets in Ado Ekiti, the capital city of Ekiti state, Nigeria. Convenience sampling technique was employed in selecting animals for observation. The birds were individually observed for phenotypic expression of shank colour, feather morphology, feather structure, polydactyly, ptylopody and comb types. The number in each group was expressed as a percentage of the total number of birds. The body size parameters measured include body weight, body girth, body length, shank length, wing length, toe length, keel length and shank diameter. The result revealed that the phenotypic frequencies of birds with dominant genes for feather morphology (FF, Ff), feather structure (NaNa + Nana), poly dactyl (PoPo + Popo) and ptylopods (FshFsh + Fshfsh) were 0.033, 0.037, 0.042 and 0.046 respectively, while that of the recessive gene carriers were 0.967, 0.963, 0.958 and 0.954 respectively. The calculated gene frequencies for frizzled (F), Naked neck (Na), Polydactyly (Po) and ptylopods (Fsh) were 0.035, 0.024, 0.034 and 0.035 respectively. The local chicken showed different plumage coloration with black, brown and pink predominating. The male birds were superior to their female counterparts with significant differences (P

The technology, which is implemented with cross platform tools, is proposed for modeling of gesture units of sign language, animation between states of gesture units with a combination of gestures (words). Implemented technology simulates sequence of gestures using virtual spatial hand model and performs recognition of dactyl items from camera input. With the cross platform means technology achieves the ability to run on multiple platforms without re-implementing for each platform.

This translation aims to recreate the metrical composure of an excerpt of the Catullus 64, an epyllion by the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, by ways of applying the rules of classical poetic meter in Portuguese and ascribing values and stress to syllables and words. This particular poem is an epithalamium, a song written to be read at a wedding ceremony, whose main characters are Peleus and Thetis. The extract chosen depicts the abandonment of Ariadne by Theseus, told through ecphrasis, a narrative presented on inanimate objects – in this case, a coverlet with the embroidery that recounts the agonising and vituperating of Minos’ daughter on the shore of Naxos, as she sees her lover absent-mindedly leaving after the victory over the Minotaur, her brother. The original latin meter is the dactylic hexameter, composed by six dactylic feet, with replacements, as the inclusion of spondees. Here, in Portuguese, the verses followed a similar rationale, and it was made an effort to emulate both the epic tone and the musical cadence of the Catullus 64., Esta tradução tem como objetivo recriar a composição métrica de um excerto do Catulo 64, um epílio do poeta latino Caio Valério Catulo, com a aplicação das normas da métrica clássica da poesia em português, atribuindo valor e tonicidade às sílabas e às palavras. Esse poema em particular é um epitalâmio, uma canção escrita para ser lida em cerimônias nupciais, cujos personagens principais são Peleu e Tétis. O texto selecionado retrata o abandono de Ariadne por Teseu, recontado por êcfrase, uma narrativa presente em objetos inanimados – neste caso, um manto bordado com os momentos de agonia e amaldiçoamento da filha de Minos na praia de Naxos enquanto vê seu amante deixá-la, despreocupado, após a vitória sobre o Minotauro, irmão dela. O metro original latino é o hexâmetro dactílico, composto por seis pés dáctilos, com substituições, como a inclusão de espondeus. Aqui, em português, os versos seguiram uma lógica similar, e houve a tentativa de emular tanto o tom épico quanto a cadência musical do Catulo 64.

espanolNueva edicion y comentario filologico de una larga y compleja inscripcion votiva de la epoca de Comodo que consta de un poema en latin (redactado en hexametros dactilicos) seguido, a modo de complemento y amplificacion, de un texto griego en prosa pero con cierto color poetico. La inscripcion esta dedicada a la Ninfa de un santuario termal, mencionada con lo que parece ser un nombre o epiteto local, y consiste tanto en la conmemoracion del cumplimiento de un voto determinado como en la narracion de las fiestas anuales que la unidad militar (numerus) comandada por el dedicante celebraba, mediante ofrendas votivas y sacrificios, en honor tanto de la Ninfa del lugar como de Asclepio, Panacea, Artemis e Hypnos. Se narra tambien, en el texto griego, una sanatio y las ofrendas correspondientes en accion de gracias. El uso del griego en este epigrafe parece que deba explicarsepor una razon de prestigio cultural. EnglishNew edition and philological commentary of a long and complex votive inscription from the time of Commodus consisting of a poem in Latin (written in dactylic hexameters) followed, as a complement and amplification, by a Greek text in prose with a certain poetic color. The inscription is dedicated to the Nymph of a thermal sanctuary, mentioned by what appears to be a name or local epithet, and consists both of the commemoration of the fulfillment of a vow and in the narration of the annual festivals that the military unit (numerus) commanded by the dedicator celebrated, through votive offerings and sacrifices, both in honor of the Nymph of the place and of Asclepius, Panacea, Artemis and Hypnos. It is also narrated, in the Greek text, a sanatioand the corresponding offerings of thanksgiving. The use of Greek in this epigraph seems to have to be explained for a reason of cultural prestige.

Red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) is the most cultivated crayfish species in the world that has commercial importance for both aquaculture and aquarium industries. In this study, a case report of an appendage abnormality observed in the left cheliped of a female specimen (6.92 g) reared under laboratory conditions is presented. It has been determined that the specimen has two appendages in the left cheliped root. Of these appendages, the right one (1.27 cm) ends in a blunt. On the left (1.06 cm), a spiny structure similar to that of the fourth and fifth walking legs was observed

Stomatopoda is a crustacean order including sophisticated predators called spearing and smashing mantis shrimps that are separated from the well-studied Eumalacotraca since the Devonian. The spearing mantis shrimp has developed a spiky dactyl capable of impaling fishes or crustaceans in a fraction of second. In this high velocity hunting technique, the spikes undergo an intense mechanical constraint to which their exoskeleton (or cuticle) has to be adapted. To better understand the spike cuticle internal architecture and composition, electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis and Raman spectroscopy were used on the spikes of 7 individuals (collected in French Polynesia and Indonesia), but also on parts of the body cuticle that have less mechanical stress to bear. In the body cuticle, several specificities linked to the group were found, allowing to determine the basic structure from which the spike cuticle has evolved. Results also highlighted that the body cuticle of mantis shrimps could be a model close to the ancestral arthropod cuticle by the aspect of its biological layers (epi- and procuticle including exo- and endocuticle) as well as by the Ca-carbonate/phosphate mineral content of these layers. In contrast, the spike cuticle exhibits a deeply modified organization in four functional regions overprinted on the biological layers. Each of them has specific fibre arrangement or mineral content (fluorapatite, ACP or phosphate-rich Ca-carbonate) and is thought to assume specific mechanical roles, conferring appropriate properties on the entire spike. These results agree with an evolution of smashing mantis shrimps from primitive stabbing/spearing shrimps, and thus also allowed a better understanding of the structural modifications described in previous studies on the dactyl club of smashing mantis shrimps.

The technology, which is implemented with cross platform tools, is proposed for modeling of gesture units of sign language, animation between states of gesture units with a combination of gestures (words). Implemented technology simulates sequence of gestures using virtual spatial hand model and performs recognition of dactyl items from camera input using trained on collected training dataset set convolutional neural network. With the cross platform means technology achieves the ability to run on multiple platforms without re-implementing for each platform

The technology, which is implemented with cross platform tools, is proposed for modeling of gesture units of sign language, animation between states of gesture units with a combination of gestures (words). Implemented technology simulates sequence of gestures using virtual spatial hand model and performs recognition of dactyl items from camera input using trained on collected training dataset set convolutional neural network, based on the MobileNetv3 architecture, and with the optimal configuration of layers and network parameters. On the collected test dataset accuracy of over 98% is achieved.

This article investigates an understudied monument of Russian historical and geographical literature of the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th century, i.e. the description of Algeria and Tunisia translated from Latin. The article gives a brief description of the monument as a whole and analyses in detail one of the lexical-semantic groups – the names of various plants and their fruit (phytonyms). The author notes that, along with widespread phytonyms in Russian (grain, bread, apple, etc.), the text under study uses rare (dactyl ’date’) and even sporadic words not recorded in any other sources on the history of the Russian language (kalpiyaziz ’earth almond’).

The laminated structural dactyl club of mantis shrimp consisting of the impact and periodic region has been studied, but most researchers only focus on the excellent impact resistance and strength of periodic region through the thickness direction. In this paper, a novel dactyl-inspired basalt fiber-reinforced sandwich-structural composite (BFSC) was manufactured based on two regions of the dactyl club by compression molding process. The BFSC was compared with discontinuous basalt fiber-reinforced composite (DBFC) in mechanical tests of tensile, flexural, compression, hardness and impact. As a result, the strength of tensile, compression, flexural and impact of BFSC were 104 MPa, 112 MPa, 135 MPa and 116 MPa, respectively, which increased to 65.4%, 9.8%, 11.6% and 30.3% than that of DBFC (63.3 MPa, 102 MPa, 121 MPa and 89 MPa). The modulus of tensile and compression of BFSC were 3740 MPa and 971 MPa, respectively, which increased to 58.3% and 38.7% compared with that of DBFC (2362 MPa and 700 MPa). The excellent mechanical properties of BFSC can be attributed to the damage of special sandwich structure, which has failure mechanisms at the microscopic scale, including the crack of resin matrix, fiber breakage, fiber/matrix debonding and delamination. This work presents a novel dactyl-inspired green-composite sandwich structures with basalt fiber. As a lightweight material, it has a wide application in the field of aerospace, high-speed railways and automotive.

The translation of natural (or biological) structures into synthetic materials offers a spectrum of feasible pathways towards enhanced or even unprecedented material properties for a wide range of applications. Inspired by excellent mechanical properties of stomatopod dactyl club, herein we propose a new functionally graded material (FGM) model that can adequately describe the characteristics of hierarchical structures in the stomatopod dactyl club. The proposed FGM model is incorporated into extended finite element method with stabilized discrete shear gap to investigate the mechanical buckling behavior of the plate made of materials similar with that in stomatopod dactyl club. The critical buckling factors for cracked FGM plates are computed and analyzed. Numerical results show that the design motif of bioinspired FGM increases the normalized buckling factor, even higher than that of homogenous plates, which suggests that the stability of plates can be enhanced by the use of bioinpsired FGM. The proposed FGM model opens a broad avenue to explore more fascinating mechanical properties of hierarchical gradient materials inspired by stomatopod dactyl club.

El objetivo del estudio es comprobar los efectos de pedagogías artivistas en la convivencia democrática y los aprendizajes cooperativos en escolares de contextos vulnerables. El enfoque fue cuantitativo, de diseño experimental. Se estructuraron dos experimentos con muestras experimentales de: a) 85 estudiantes de cuarto a sexto grado de educación primaria, b) 65 de sexto grado de educación primaria. Se halló que: 1) la pedagogía artivista popular basada en aspectos culturales (problemas y folklore) desarrolla la convivencia democrática en contextos vulnerables, y 2) la pedagogía basada en dáctilo pintura teatral desarrolla los aprendizajes cooperativos de forma significativa y sus dimensiones, aunque la interacción individual es un aspecto complejo de desarrollar. Por tanto, se determinó que la pedagogía artivista popular y la experiencia de dáctilo pintura teatral son pedagogías útiles para el desarrollo de la democracia y la cooperación para convivencias saludables en contextos de vulnerabilidad escolar. Lima Norte Escuela Profesional de Educación Primaria

The morphological and behavioral aspects of slipper lobster (Scyllaridae) feeding have remained largely unexplored. Using scanning electron microscopy, the gross morphological structure of all segments of the pereiopods were described for three species of scyllarid lobsters. Five types of setae within three broad categories were found: simple (long and miniature), cuspidate (robust and conate), and teasel (a type of serrulate setae). Setae were arranged in a highly-organized, row-like pattern on the ventral and dorsal surfaces. Cuspidate setae were found on all surfaces of all segments. Simple setae were found only on the dactyl, whereas teazel setae were concentrated on the lateral-most edge of the alate carina on the merus in only one species [Scyllarides aequinoctialis (Lund, 1793)]; this species also differed from the other two [Scyllarides nodifer (Stimpson, 1866), Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1803)] in setal patterning. All examined slipper lobsters differed in setal types and patterns from nephropid and palinurid lobsters, likely due to the more rigorous use of their pereiopods in accessing food. Feeding sequences of two of the slipper lobster species were videotaped and analyzed, and demonstrated a complex set of behaviors involving contact chemoreception by the antennules as part of an initial assessment of the food item, followed by extensive manipulation, probing, and eventual wedging behavior by the pereiopods as previously described for Scyllarides. Use of the antennules for food assessment and heavy reliance on the pereiopods, rather than the mouthparts, for food handling contrasts with nephropid and palinurid lobsters.

The prose treatise that Pherecydes of Syros composed in the middle of the 6th centuryBCshows several instances where the rhythm of the dactylic hexameter is imitated. After defining four criteria to identify such imitations of dactylic rhythm by archaic prose writers (word order within the rhythmic sequence, potential substitution to an unmarked rhythm, length and interpretation), I analyse six examples and I argue that Pherecydes introduces rhythmic echoes to underscore the differences of his own view from the thought-contents that were developed by epic and theogonic poems. This study sheds light on traditional problems raised by archaic prose treatises: I argue that Pherecydes’ work was meant to be read before an audience on which it was intended to have an effect. In this light, it seems unlikely that his treatise had a purely hypomnematic function, or that it was only meant to be disclosed within the school itself.

This paper analyses the transfer of the Greek dactylic hexameter to Latin. The discussion centers on two questions: the unequal proportion of spondees and dactyls and the incidence of metrical bridges. In line with generative and prosodic metrics the rhythmic basis of both Latin and Greek is the stress-matrix of one heavy or two light syllables. The hexameter line when parsed into these constituents turns out to have exactly six stress-clashes per line. From this observation it is argued that the preference for heavy syllables to be stressed is the reason for the preponderance of spondaic feet and the lack of metrical bridges in the Latin hexameter.

The disjunct distribution of Cambarus monongalensis has led to speculation about its taxonomic status. An Appalachian Plateau population occurs in northern and central West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania, and a mountain population occurs in the Allegheny Mountains and Ridge and Valley physiographic provinces of the Virginias. Herein we describe the mountain population as Cambarus fetzneri sp. nov. The two species differ genetically and morphologically, and have different color patterns. Specifically, C. fetzneri sp. nov. chelae lack extensive red coloration on the distal end of the propodus and dactyl, possess rostral margins that lack any red coloration, compared to C. monongalensis, which has extensive red coloration on the dactyl and propodus, as well as red rostral margins. Morphologically, the rostrum of C. fetzneri sp. nov. is shorter and wider than that of C. monongalensis. Also, adult C. fetzneri sp. nov. are considerably smaller in body size than those of C. monongalensis.

In this paper, we compare several real-time sign language dactyl recognition systems and present a new model based on deep convolutional neural networks. These systems are able to recognize Russian alphabet letters presented as static signs in Russian Sign language used by people from deaf community. In such an approach, we recognize words from Russian natural language presented by consequent hand gestures of each letter. We evaluate our approach on Russian (RSL) sign language, for which we collect our own dataset and evaluate dactyl recognition.

Sign languages are the main way for people from deaf community to communicate with other people. In this paper, we have compared several real-time sign language dactyl recognition systems using deep convolutional neural networks. Our system is able to recognize words from natural language gestured using signs for each letter. We evaluate our approach on American (ASL) and Russian (RSL) sign languages. For ASL, we trained on dataset prepared by Massey University, Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences, for RSL we collect our own dataset, which we aim to enlarge together with RSL community in Russia. The results showed 100% accuracy for ASL Massey dataset, while RSL recognition quality is behind sufficient quality due to much more complex nature of real-world RSL dataset.

Sign language is the main way to communicate for people from deaf community. However, common people mostly do not know sign language. In this paper, we overview several real-time sign language dactyl recognition systems using deep convolutional neural networks. These systems are able to recognize dactylized words gestured by signs for each letter. We evaluate our approach on American (ASL) and Russian (RSL) sign languages. This solution may help fasten the process of communication for deaf people. On the contrary, we also present the algorithm for generating sign animation from text information using text-to-sign video vocabulary, which helps to integrate sign language in dubbed TV and combining with speech recognition tool provide full translation from natural language to sign language.

This article presents new results on the solution of the problem of definition of efficient features and synthesis of an optimal band-separating classifier for elements of the dactyl alphabet of deaf sign language. Approaches to the qualitative evaluation of the separability of elements of dactyl alphabet for different feature spaces are considered. An algorithm is proposed for obtaining a hyperplane classifier separating groups of dactylemes in a feature space.

We investigated how male Uca rosea (Tweedie, 1937) have behaviourally or morphologically compensated for having only one functional feeding claw while females have two. We found that male U. rosea used four compensatory mechanisms: (1) larger feeding claws (dactyl length and width), (2) higher feeding rate/claw per min, (3) higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw per min than similar sized females, and (4) higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw lift than females of similar feeding rate/feeding claw per min. This study is the first one to demonstrate that taking higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw per min than comparable sized females, and taking higher numbers of pinches/feeding claw lift than females of similar feeding rate/claw per min are used as additional compensatory mechanisms for male fiddler crabs to compensate for having only one feeding claw.

We investigated whether male Uca vocans (Linnaeus, 1758) have behaviourally or morphologically compensated for having only one feeding claw while females have two. We predicted that (1) females will have a higher feeding rate/crab per min, (2) males will have a higher feeding rate/claw per min, (3) males will have larger feeding claws (dactyl length and width) than comparable-sized females, and (4) smaller crabs will feed faster than larger ones and thereby satisfy their feeding demand more rapidly than larger crabs. Our results supported all four predictions. Males compensated for having one feeding claw by feeding faster/claw per min with larger claws.

The periodic region with a helicoidal structure and the impact zone with a herringbone structure of the mantis shrimp’s dactyl club, which makes it excellent in energy absorption. This biological structure gives us effective methods for making novel composite structures. In this paper, a dactyl-inspired sinusoidal-corrugated helicoidal sandwich-structural honeycomb (DSHSH) was manufactured with unidirectional basalt fiber and aluminum honeycomb based on periodic region and impact region of dactyl club. The DSHSH was compared with dactyl-inspired sinusoidal-corrugated plain-woven skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (DSPSH) and dactyl-inspired sinusoidal-corrugated unidirectional skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (DSUSH), dactyl-inspired helicoidal sandwich-structural honeycomb (DHSH), traditional plain-woven skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (TPSH), and traditional unidirectional skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (TUSH) in tests of impact and flexrual. The results exhibited that DSHSH that simulates multi-structures (periodic and impact regions) significantly improves peak load and energy absorption capabilities.

The periodic region of mantis shrimp’s dactyl club, composed of the helicoidal arrangement of mineralized fiber, has excellent energy absorption and damage tolerance. This structure, inspired by the dactyl club, has been proved effective to improve the mechanical properties of composites. In this paper, a novel dactyl-inspired sandwich honeycomb (DSH) was fabricated with unidirectional carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb based on the periodic region of the dactyl club. The DSH was compared with plain-woven skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (PSH) and unidirectional skin sandwich-structural honeycomb (USH) in tests of impact and bending. As a result, the average impact contact force of DSH was 3514.6 N, which was increased by 60.9% and 106.0% compared with PSH (2184.7 N) and USH (1705.8 N), respectively. The bending energy absorption of DSH was 29556.5 N·mm, which was increased by 278.3% and 115.4% compared with PSH (7812.2 N·mm) and USH (13719.6 N·mm), respectively. The results exhibited that the quasi-isotropic helicoidal arrangement of carbon fiber was an effective way to improve the impact resistance and bending energy absorption of DSH.

The technology, which is implemented with cross platform tools, is proposed for modeling of gesture units of sign language, animation between states of gesture units with a combination of gestures (words). Implemented technology simulates sequence of gestures using virtual spatial hand model and performs recognition of dactyl items from camera input. With the cross platform means technology achieves the ability to run on multiple platforms without re-implementing for each platform.

In the kelp crab, Pugettia producta, flat plate setae cover all but the ventral surfaces of the walking leg dactyls. Dendrites enter the setal shaft located inside the plate superstructure, and extend to a region of the setal tip that contains a system of minute pores resembling the pore systems found in chemosensory sensilla of insects. Presumably, much of the chemosensitivity of the dactyls in the kelp crab is mediated by the plate setae. In the interior of the dactyl, supporting cells and the neurons innervating plate setae, other types of setae, and other presumptive sensilla form scolopidia. Large scolopidia, containing as many as 12 dendrites, appear to innervate some of the plate setae and also large ventral rodlike setae that might be chemosensory. Two of the dendrites of large scolopidia usually have more densely packed microtubules, longer ciliary axonemes, slightly larger rootlets, and dark A fibers with arms, characteristics indicative of mechanosensory function. Some dactyl setae, therefore, could be both mechanosensory and chemosensory. Small scolopidia containing two or three dendrites that exhibit mechanosensory characteristics appear to innervate small, rodlike setae, which presumably are strictly mechanosensory. The two types of structures located on the epicuticular cap, elliptical structures resembling campaniform sensilla and small cones in pits resembling CAP organs, appear to be dually innervated and presumably are mechanosensory, although other functions are possible. The internal positions of the scolopidia, together with the support afforded by an extracellular dendritic sheath, by the scolopale, and by desmosomelike and septate junctions, may serve to protect internal portions of setal dendrites, some of which appear to remain functional in nonmolting adults that have abraded setae.

1. Feeding response exhibition in five marine crustaceans was observed in the presence of a range of concentrations of an amino acid mixture composed of equal parts DL alpha arnino-n-butyric acid, L-glutamic acid and taurine. Gnathophausiaingens, Pleuroncodes planipes, and Cancer antennarius displayed behavioral thresh olds of between 10-10 and 10-12 M; Spirontocaris taylori and Pagurus hirsutiusculus displayed thresholds between 10-7 and 10-9 M.2. Electrophysiological response thresholds to the amino acid mixture were examined in G. ingens and C. antennarius. The antennular and dactyl receptors of G. ingens displayed thresholds of 10-7 and 10-8 M respectively. Maxilliped and dactyl receptors of C. antennarius both displayed a threshold of 5 x 10-5 M.3. Panulirus interruptus antennule receptors displayed a degree of specificity to mono- and dicarboxylic amino acids.

A mole cricket Neoscapteriscus didactylus (Latreille, 1804) was found in 2019 in Saint Rose, Guadeloupe (West Indies). This is the first secured record for this French overseas department. Wear of some dactyls of the insect’s foretibiae is presented., Fragmenta Entomologica, Vol. 51 No. 2 (2019)

Wave propagation was investigated in the Bouligand-like structure from within the dactyl club of the Stomatopod, a crustacean that is known to smash their heavily shelled preys with high accelerations. We incorporate the layered nature in a unitary material cell through the propagator matrix formalism while the periodic nature of the material is considered via Bloch boundary conditions as applied in the theory of solid state physics. Our results show that these materials exhibit bandgaps at frequencies related to the stress pulse generated by the impact of the dactyl club to its prey, and therefore exhibiting wave filtering in addition to the already known mechanisms of macroscopic isotropic behavior and toughness., 19 pages, 7 figures, In press, Acta Biomaterialia (2015)

The collection of motets published in 1581 by the Tyrolean composer Leonhard Lechner (1553-1606) contains a piece (XXIII) declared anonymous by critics or, sometimes also, Lechnerian. Nevertheless, we found this text in the posthumous collection (1530) of Epigrammata of Ravisius Textor (died in 1522), professor of Latin in the famous Parisian College of Navarre. Suggesting Textor as primary source of this composition, N. Istasse proposes his own translated edition in English and French. He cites also, among the rich history of these eight dactylic hexameters, the old English translation of Timothy Kendall (1577) and a Flemish one due to the theologian Willem Baudert (1605).

In the young Germanic language Luxembourgish schwa can be dropped in the context before (and sometimes after) a sonorant and following a stressed syllable, e. g. Elteren > Elt_ren ‘parents’. The present paper describes schwa deletion from three perspectives: (1) the influ-ence of speech rate (allegro vs. lento speech), (2) the influence of the segments adjacent to schwa and (3) the prosodic structure of words. The results of an empirical investigation with 15 native speakers show that the deletion is very frequent in spoken Luxembourgish and that the two first aspects jointly account for the phenomenon. Regarding the third aspect, due to the loss of the vowel and hence of a syllable the predominance of the dactyl shifts towards the trochee, which constitutes the unmarked foot type in spoken Luxembourgish.