Antipowers in Uniform Morphic Words and the Fibonacci Word

Fici, Restivo, Silva, and Zamboni define a $k$-antipower to be a word composed of $k$ pairwise distinct, concatenated words of equal length. Berger and Defant conjecture that for any sufficiently well-behaved aperiodic morphic word $w$, there exists a constant $c$ such that for any $k$ and any index $i$, a $k$-antipower with block length at most $ck$ starts at the $i$th position of $w$. They prove their conjecture in the case of binary words, and we extend their result to alphabets of arbitrary finite size and characterize those words for which the result does not hold. We also prove their conjecture in the specific case of the Fibonacci word.

A new species of the genus Orthosinus Motschulsky, 1863 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) from Laos

A new species, Orthosinus tuberculatus Legalov, sp. nov. from Laos (Hua Phan Prov.) is described and illustrated. This new species is similar to O. foveatus Voss, 1953 from China but differs from it in the larger body sizes, the pronotum of equal length and width, wide elytral interstriae and narrow striae. It differs from other species of this genus in the wide elytra evenly rounded at the apex with rounded sides.

EFFECT OF MICROSTRUCTURE ON INITIATION OF DELAMINATION IN CROSS PLY LAMINATES FROM A TRANSVERSE CRACK

Transverse crack propagating towards a cross-ply interface is investigated in this study. The non-uniform fiber distribution near ply interface is modelled explicitly in order to study the effect of microstructure on crack path and initiation of delamination. The growth of fiber/matrix interfacial debond and debond kinking out of interface are analyzed based on a combination of energy and stress-based approach, which is convenient in predicting matrix crack path. Kinking of transverse crack tip when it approaches ply interface is investigated using an energy-based approach. It is found that predicted matrix crack path and crack tip kinking behavior near interface is strongly influenced by the local microstructure. The obtained results indicate that an induced symmetrical delamination, i.e., interface cracks of equal length on either side of the transverse ply crack, as often assumed in modeling studies, is not always a favorable damage mode.

Five new species of the leaf-beetle genus Monolepta Chevrolat (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae) from China

In this study, five new species of the leaf-beetle genus Monolepta Chevrolat, 1836 (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae) are described from China: M. albipunctatasp. nov., M. alticolasp. nov., M. bivittatasp. nov., M. mengsongensissp. nov., and M. rubripennissp. nov. A key and catalogue to the 68 Chinese species of Monolepta with the second and third antennomeres of equal length are given as well as photographs of the habitus and aedeagus of the new species and type habitus images of 37 known species.

Some Linguistic Features of the Baeu Rodo Scriptures

Zhuang, one of the fifty-six ethnic groups in China, enjoys the second largest population among all members in the Chinese family. The Baeu Rodo scriptures, a reflection of the Zhuang culture, are recited by indigenous ritual specialists called boumo for the important life-circle ceremonies of betrothal, marriage, birth, and death, or for cases of dealing with quarrels, summoning lost souls, and driving away devils. Based on the Baeu Rodo texts, it is concluded that the most impressive linguistic features of the Baeu Rodo scriptures are versification, waist-rhyme, and balanced repetition. The scriptures are written predominantly in five-syllable verse and they are in poetic form. Waist-rhyme is a rhyme in which the last syllable in the first line of a stanza rhymes with the middle syllable in the following line, which is extremely different from a rhyme in English. Balanced repetition refers to the structures that are in similar form and function and equal length but usually occur in two or more lines in verse, expressing the same idea or contrasting ones. The discussion of these striking features of the Baeu Rodo scriptures is of great significance, leading to a better understanding of the texts which serve as carriers of the traditional Zhuang culture and promoting the intercultural communication between the Zhuang people and the English people.

Large-Scale Data Sorting Using Independent Equal-Length Subarrays

Design an efficient data sorting algorithm that requires less time and space complexity is essential for large data sets in wireless networks, the Internet of things, data mining systems, computer science, and communications engineering. This paper proposes a low-complex data sorting algorithm that distinguishes the sorted/similar data, makes independent subarrays, and sorts the subarrays’ data using one of the popular sorting algorithms. It is proved that the mean-based pivot is as efficient as the median-based pivot for making equal-length subarrays. The numerical analyses indicate slight improvements in the elapsed time and the number of swaps of the proposed serial Merge-based and Quick-based algorithms compared to the conventional ones for low/high variance integer/non-integer uniform/Gaussian data, in different data lengths. However, using the gradual data extraction feature, the sorted parts can be extracted sequentially before ending the sorting process. Also, making independent subarrays proposes a general framework to parallel realization of sorting algorithms with separate parts. Simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed parallel Merge-based and Quick-based algorithms to the conventional serial and multi-core parallel algorithms. Finally, the complexity of the proposed algorithm in both serial and parallel realizations is analyzed that shows an impressive improvement.

Comparison of Two Locally Made Motorized Plantain Slicers

This study focused on comparing two locally designed plantain slicers in other to economically and productively advice small scale chips – producers. The two selected slicing machines were horizontally inclined slicer (HIS) and vertically inclined slicer (VIS). These slicers were carefully chosen and it was ensured they had same power input, motor speed, and slicing blade of equal length. Evaluation result showed that the highest throughput capacity for HIS was 51.16 kg/hr and had an average throughput capacity of 50.10 kg/hr while the highest throughput capacity for VIS was 45.90 kg/hr and had an average throughput capacity of 45.34 kg/hr. The results of the slicing efficiencies showed that a maximum efficiency of 100 %, but had an average efficiency value of 92.84 %, while VIS had a maximum efficiency value of 87 % and an average efficiency value of 83.25 %. From the results of the throughput capacity and the efficiency of the two slicers, it can be concluded that HIS performed better and faster than VIS and is considered the better both economically and productively.