Visible Light and Its Influence on the Embryonic Viability of the Cricket Acheta domesticus

During in vitro fertilization, human embryos are incubated without light, and these conditions do not ensure embryo survival. This study explored whether environmental conditions can influence the embryo viability rates of the house cricket, Acheta domesticus. In particular, the experiment tested what colors of visible light provide the best incubation conditions to ensure cricket embryo viability. The concept was to use house cricket embryos to represent human embryos. Cricket embryos were chosen as their eggs have soft outer membrane casings and resemble human embryos during the first few days after fertilization. During the experiment, the adult crickets laid their eggs into one of six soil-filled boxes called substrates. Each substrate was placed into one of six storage containers filled with adult crickets and lit with a different colored visible light (red, yellow, green, blue, white, or no light). After two days of breeding, the egg-filled substrates were removed from the adult crickets and placed in another storage container of the same color light. After incubation under heat-emitting lamps and under one of six light colors, nymphs were counted after hatching to determine embryo viability. After three trials, the red light provided the significantly highest viability rate, with yellow and no light being comparable seconds. The green, blue, and white lights showed significantly lower viability rates than no visible light. My results raise the speculation that exposing fertilized mammal eggs to visible light colors might have the same effects during the in vitro fertilization process.

Cricket室内定位系统的研究与改进

目前,人们对室内定位与导航的需求越来越大,如在展厅、图书馆、仓库、超市等室内环境中,用户希望持有可移动设备能够自由定位并导航,因此,该文主要目的是介绍基于超声波技术和射频技术的Cricket室内定位系统的工作原理、优缺点并提出改进方法;通过引入节能机制的方法,改进Cricket室内定位系统的信道分配策略,得出定位系统能耗和成本的结果,最终能在一定程度上降低Cricket室内定位系统的能耗和成本,保证节点之间的公平性。

基于相位叠加的Cricket系统信标节点识别方法

对于Cricket室内超声波定位系统,能否正确识别不同信标节点发射的信号对接收器的定位至关重要。本文根据压电陶瓷的振动机制和声波在空气中的传播特性,推导出超声波发射器和接收器的振动方程,提出了一种基于超声驱动信号相位叠加的方法识别不同信标节点发出的超声信号。从原理验证、软件仿真、实验验证三个方面证明了叠加识别法可以有效地识别Cricket系统中不同的信标节点。

Evolution-Based Performance Prediction of Star Cricketers

Cricket databases contain rich and useful information to examine and forecasting patterns and trends.This paper predicts Star Cricketers(SCs)from batting and bowling domains by employing supervised machine learning models.With this aim,each player’s performance evolution is retrieved by using effective features that incorporate the standard performance measures of each player and their peers.Prediction is performed by applying Bayesianrule,function and decision-tree-based models.Experimental evaluations are performed to validate the applicability of the proposed approach.In particular,the impact of the individual features on the prediction of SCs are analyzed.Moreover,the category and model-wise feature evaluations are also conducted.A cross-validation mechanism is applied to validate the performance of our proposed approach which further confirms that the incorporated features are statistically significant.Finally,leading SCs are extracted based on their performance evolution scores and their standings are cross-checked with those provided by the International Cricket Council.

Kinematics of Terrestrial Locomotion in Mole Cricket Gryllotalpa orientalis

The fore leg of mole cricket （Orthoptera： Glyllotalpidae） has developed into claw for digging and excavating. As the result of having a well-suited body and appendages for living underground, mole cricket still needs to manoeuvre on land in some cases with some kinds of gait. In this paper, the three-dimensional kinematics information of mole cricket in terrestrial walking was recorded by using a high speed 3D video recording system. The mode and the gait of the terrestrial walking mole cricket were investigated by analyzing the kinematics parameters, and the kinematics coupling disciplines of each limb and body were discussed. The results show that the locomotion gait of mole cricket in terrestrial walking belongs to a distinctive alternating tripod gait. We also found that the fore legs of a mole cricket are not as effective as that of common hexapod insects, its middle legs and body joints act more effective in walking and turning which compensate the function of fore legs. The terrestrial lo-comotion of mole cricket is the result of biological coupling of three pairs of legs, the distinctive alternating tripod gait and the trunk locomotion.

Risk factors for hamstring injuries in Australian male professional cricket players

Background:Injuries to the hamstring are relatively common in professional cricketers(as they are in many team sports) and have increased in incidence in the "T20 era"(introduction of 20-over matches) of cricket since 2006.Methods:This study analyzed incidence of hamstring injury in the various elite male match types over a 20-year period(1995–1996 to 2014–2015seasons).Risk factors for hamstring strain were assessed using a multivariate logistic regression analysis technique.Results:There were 276 match time-loss hamstring injuries recorded over a 20-year period at the Australian state or national player level,of which170 occurred in one of 40,145 player match sets.The overall rate of match onset rate was 22.5 hamstring injuries per 1000 team days.Fast bowling onset injuries were the highest subcategory at a rate of 10.9 injuries per 1000 team days,although batting onset injuries were particularly common in 50-over(one day) international matches.Significant risk factors in logistic regression analysis,in addition to hamstring injury history,were being a fast bowler relative risk(RR) 2.5(95% confidence interval(CI):1.3–4.5) and playing a match in Australia RR 2.3(95%CI:1.3–3.9).Conclusion:Fast bowlers suffer more hamstring injuries than other playing roles in cricket,particularly in First Class(multi-day) cricket.Batsmen are more likely to get injured in 50-over(one day) cricket.Playing in Australia(compared to overseas venues) leads to increased risk of hamstring injury.

Context Based Adoption of Ranking and Indexing Measures for Cricket Team Ranks

There is an international cricket governing body that ranks the expertise of all the cricket playing nations,known as the International Cricket Council(ICC).The ranking system followed by the ICC relies on the winnings and defeats of the teams.The model used by the ICC to implement rankings is deficient in certain key respects.It ignores key factors like winning margin and strength of the opposition.Various measures of the ranking concept are presented in this research.The proposed methods adopt the concepts of h-Index and PageRank for presenting more comprehensive ranking metrics.The proposed approaches not only rank the teams on their losing/winning stats but also take into consideration the margin of winning and the quality of the opposition.Three cricket team ranking techniques are presented i.e.,(1)Cricket Team-Index(ct-index),(2)Cricket Team Rank(CTR)and(3)Weighted Cricket Team Rank(WCTR).The proposed metrics are validated through the collection of cricket dataset,extracted from Cricinfo,having instances for all the three formats of the game i.e.,T20 International(T20i),One Day International(ODI)and Test matches.The comparative analysis between the proposed and existing techniques,for all the three formats,is presented as well.

Antennal epicuticular structure of camel crickets (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) for identifying the prey of Mustella sibrica Pallas

Camel crickets (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) are a group of wingless and humpbacked Orthopteran insects. They are closed relatives to katydids and crickets;they were called spider crickets somewhere because of their long legs. Camel cricket plays an important role in the food web in various ecosystems. In the forest ecosystem, they live in the ground level of forestry under litters and fallen leaves, and some of them live beneath the log and hid themselves under loosen tree barks. They feed on decomposing organic substances and serve as decomposers in the food chain. It is a very common insect prey to insectivorous animals in natural and artificial vegetation. Guandaushi (GDS) is the experimental forest station of National Chung Hsing University, as the study site of long term ecological research (LTER) in Taiwan. And the camel cricket became an important subject and a dominant insect group in the LTER studies. They are the major parts of the insect preys of vertebrates, especially to the insectivorous mammals. According to our previous publication, 32.2% of the insect preys of Mustela sibirica Pallas are camel crickets in GDS forest ecosystem. There were 5 morpho-species of camel crickets by the characters of antennal epicuticular characters. The camel cricket was collected from various ways according to the LTER study during 1995-1998. The morphology of antennal epicuticular structure from totally 60 individuals was observed by using SEM. The epicuticular sculpture was described and classified into Type I and Type II by the SEM photographs. Type I has 8 patterns and Type II has 5 patterns in this study. The illustration and the pictorial key were provided here as the tool for further application. The morpho-species could not be identified due to the remainder being fragmented while examined. After the study, the SEM antennal epicuticular structures were classified and identified based upon the antennae sample of the morphospecies from the specimens of the 5 camel crickets which were collected from GDS forest ecosystem in this study. This is a part of the fundamental study for the protocol of ecosystem study. The protocol for identifying the insectivorous animal’s prey by the insect fragment of food remainders is necessary. One more, there were 7 of the 13 patterns of antennal epicuticular structure applied to analysis the 5 morpho-species provided as the case study for taxonomy.

A new Net Resource Factor Based Alternative Method to Calculate Revised Target in Interrupted One Day Cricket Matches

This paper proposes an alternative method to calculate the revised target in interrupted 50 overs One Day international (ODI) cricket matches. Existing Duckworth Lewis (D/L) method and its modified versions only take available batting resources of the batting team into account and ignore the individual player’s excellence to calculate the revised target. Here, it is worth mentioning that individual player’s excellence varies in reality, and therefore quality of the available resources may affect the revised target significantly. Further in D/L method, revised target calculation depends only on the available batting resources of the batting team and does not consider the available bowling resources of the fielding team. Proposed method overcomes these two shortcomings by taking individual player’s excellence and available bowling resources of the fielding team into account. Individual player’s excellence has been determined by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a well-known non parametric mathematical programming technique. A new idea of “Net Resource Factor” has been introduced to capture both batting and bowling resources to calculate the revised target. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to incorporate the ability of individual players and bowling resources of the fielding team for calculating the revised target. A comparative analysis between the proposed method and D/L method has been carried out using the data of real ODI matches held in the past. To facilitate ground application of the proposed method, a flow chart and a “Net Resource Factor Table” have been designed.

Robowler:Design and development of a cricket bowling machine ensuring ball seam position

The art of cricket bowling is complex and arduous owing to the run-up and ball release time energy requirement to achieve speed and variations. Therefore, human bowlers cannot bowl for extended periods and numerous mechanical bowling machines have been built to help batsmen improve their skills during practice sessions. However, most of these existing machines are designed for spherical balls ignoring the distinguishing physical feature of a cricket ball: the raised equatorial seam, which makes it less of a sphere. The bowlers are known to often benefit from this seam in their pursuit to taking the batsmen's wicket by imparting swing, spin and bounce variations along-with other bowling variables. This lack of the seam consideration creates a void between human and mechanical bowling. In this work, we present design and development of an automatic bowling machine termed as ROBOWLER to make mechanical bowling more realistic. This machine ensures ball seam position as well as fulfills other constraints. Ball pitching and seam position accuracy results underscore the suitability of this design to enhance the capabilities of mechanical bowling.

《诗经·魏风》“硕鼠”释义新考

随着“安大简”的发现与整理,人们对《诗经·魏风》中的“硕鼠”有了新的认识。“硕鼠”在“安大简”简文中书作“石鼠”,这为我们准确理解常见版本中的“硕鼠”提供了更为客观的新视角。《诗经·魏风》中的“硕鼠”“石鼠”实际上即“鼫鼠”“大鼠”“鼯鼠”“雀鼠”“飞生”等,这是一种形体较大,双翼如蝙蝠,毛色多种,既能穴处,又能入“树空中”的大飞鼠。它不仅食人禾苗,而且食粟、豆,史书中亦有“雀鼠耗”之典故。它实际上属于兽类,既不是人们一般所认为的大老鼠,更不是昆虫类中名为“硕鼠”的蝼蛄。学界对《诗经·魏风》中的“硕鼠”诠释上出现的分歧,多由不辨其名同物异所致。

板球运动的变革与入奥成功的挑战

板球这项古老的运动一个世纪后重新进入奥运会。为什么能快速成长,并成为一项全球化的运动?本文着眼于板球运动的历史渊源和全球化发展,分析板球运动的传统文化传播和演变历程,从板球竞赛的变革解读测试赛、世界杯、亚运会和奥运会,从国际板球组织的全世界发展分析世界板球运动快速成长及中国板球运动的举步维艰,探讨板球运动的变革成长道路及入奥后板球传统国家和新兴国家所面临的机遇与挑战。

The terrestrial locomotion of a mole cricket with foreleg amputation

Mole cricket is a unique insect, it not only can dig and excavate under ground with its specialized forelimb, but also can achieve terrestrial locomotion. This study focused on the difference of kinematics between mole crickets and normal insects in terrestrial walking. In order to study the function of the specialized foreleg, the adjustments made to the foreleg amputation were discussed by analyzing the motion ability, gait, and body posture of the mole cricket with and without forelegs. The re- suits show that mole crickets walk in terrestrial locomotion by using a special tripod gait, with the clumsy foreleg not as func- tional as normal hexapods. Mole cricket can make corresponding adjustments for the situation of missing forelegs, and achieve required molion stability with remained four legs.

Motion Characteristics of the Appendages of Mole Crickets during Burrowing

Mole crickets,Gryllotalpa orientalis,have a pair of fully specialized forelegs for burrowing and employ an efficient underground excavating pattern,which provides excellent biological example for design of bionic underground excavation equipment.In this study,the excavating pattern and kinematic features of mole crickets were obtained by using high-speed motion capture system and employing a transparent hydrogel as the analogue for soil.The two-dimensional motion characteristics of the forelegs of mole crickets during burrowing were captured and analyzed.The results show that the forelegs of the mole cricket employ a unique excavating pattern,which consists of foreword digging and horizontal expansion.We label this pattern a digging-expanding mode.An excavating cycle includes the digging and expanding motion of the forelegs,rotation caused by the midlegs and hindlegs,and forward thrust by the hindlegs.The excavating motion of the left and right forelegs is alternately carried out.This study can inspire the design of bionic tunnelling mechanisms and underground excavation equipment.

生物多样性视域下斗蟋蟀非物质文化遗产保护研究

蟋蟀对于稳固食物链和增强土壤肥力具有重要作用,是维持生物多样性的重要一环。斗蟋蟀是人与自然联系的特殊文娱活动,具有深厚的文化底蕴。近年来,斗蟋蟀被多地列入游艺或民俗类非物质文化遗产,这对于斗蟋蟀技艺的传承具有积极意义。然而,在人为活动、自然环境变化以及城市化进程下,蟋蟀的数量和种质急剧下降,不仅危害了生物多样性,还威胁了斗蟋非遗传承的物质基础。非遗保护作为一种文化干预,需基于生物多样性视角,从蟋蟀物种保护、维护生态平衡以及激活生态文化基因切入,采取加强生态知识普及、壮大非遗传承主体以及发展文旅产业等措施加强斗蟋非遗的保护与利用。

Hierarchical structure and biomineralization in cricket teeth

The cricket is a truculent insect with stiff and sharp teeth as a fighting weapon. The structure and possible biomineralization of cricket teeth are always interesting. Synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, and small angle X-ray scattering techniques were used to probe the element distribution, possible crystalline structures and size distribution of scatterers in cricket teeth. A scanning electron microscope was used to observe the nanoscaled structure. The results demonstrate that Zn is the main heavy element in cricket teeth. The surface of a cricket tooth has a crystalline compound like ZnFe2（AsO4）2（OH）2（H2O）4 . The interior of the tooth has a crystalline compound like ZnCl2 , which is from the biomineralization. The ZnCl2-like biomineral forms nanoscaled microfibrils and their axial direction points towards the top of the tooth cusp. The microfibrils aggregate randomly into intermediate filaments, forming a hierarchical structure. A sketch map of the cricket tooth cusp is proposed and a detailed discussion is given in this paper.

THE EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC TRACHEA SYSTEM ON DIRECTIONAL HEARING IN BUSHCRICKET Gampsocleis gratiosa

Directional hearing plays a particularly important role in acoustic communication of animals. For a signal-receiving animal, there are three tasks to be performed: to ascertain whether a singing animal is conspecific or a 'natural enemy'; to recognize the songs’ meaning; to detect the location of a singing animal in the space and then to determine which appropriate responses should be taken, either to approach the song source or to escape.

Temporal coding of auditory tonic neurons in bushcricketand effects of GABA

Acoustic communication plays an important role in the behavior of insects, such asmating, aggression or alarm, and preying. A typical example is that female bushcrickets(Orthoptera) can approach phonotactically towards singing conspecific males. For it fe-males should perform the following tasks: song recognition, understanding of songs, anddetection of sound source. To study physiological properties of the auditory nervous

Structure and Functions of a T-shaped Auditory Neuron in the Bushcricket Gampsocleis gratiosa

The phonotactic movement for mating and the escape on hearing are two typical activities by animals with the ability of intra-and interspecific acoustic communications.To study neural mechanisms of the acoustic behavior is the key problem in neuroethology. As the auditory systems in lower animals are relatively simple, lower animals are usually used as the prototype to study structures and functions of the auditory and motor neurons involved in the above-mentioned acoustic behavior at single cell level.

CRICKET COMBAT

Agaggle of men form a circle,sweat on their brows as they wave hundred yuan bills in the air in a darkly lit room in Beijing.Sure,gambling is illegal in China,but that won’t stop these blood-sport enthusiasts.The fight is on,and they wildly cheer on the two males in question.