The adaptive significance of cryptic colour patterns has seldom been analysed in a phylogenetic context. We mapped data on the presence vs. absence of dorsal stripes, and the use of needle-like vs. broad foliage, onto a recent phylogeny of Timema walking-sticks, in order to infer the evolutionary history of these traits and test the hypothesis that the dorsal stripe is an adaptation for crypsis...

The cuttings-sticks problem is the following. We are given a bundle of sticks all having integer lengths. The total sum of their lengths is n(n+1)/2. Can we break the sticks so that the resulting sticks have lengths 1, 2, . . . , n? The problem is known to be NP-hard. We consider an optimization version of the problem which involves cutting the sticks and placing them into boxes. The problem ha...

The rate of caries has long been observed to be very low in the users of chewing-sticks even when they consume high carbohydrate diets. Recent researches have revealed that the chewing-sticks help in cleaning the teeth not simply due to mechanical removal of plaque but also due to their chemical constituents that possess the properties of whitening the teeth, protecting them from decay and remo...

This study was designed to evaluate the effect of ethanolic cherry sticks extract on the levels of glycoproteins in alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Forty-five adult male albino mice were divided equally into three groups: Group 1: control, Group 2: diabetic mice, Group 3: diabetic mice treated with cherry sticks extract as well as to eighteen mice treated with cherry sticks extract only for toxi...

Sticks at one of different orientation are placed in an i.i.d. fashion at points of a Poisson point process of intensity λ. Sticks of the same direction have the same length, while sticks in different directions may have different lengths. We study the geometry of finite cluster as λ → ∞. The asymptotic shape of the custer being determined by the probabilities of the sticks in various direction...