We studied three cerrado physiognomies (campo cerrado, a savanna woodland; cerrado sensu stricto, a woodland; and cerradão, a tall woodland) in a reserve with 1,225 ha, in Santa Rita do Passa-Quatro (21 degrees 36-38'S and 47 degrees 36-39'W), São Paulo State, South-eastern Brazil, to compare plant communities structure. As descriptors of the vegetation structure, we used richness, density, bas...

We propose an efficient system for realistic speech animation. The system supports all steps of the animation pipeline, from the capture or design of 3D head models up to the synthesis and editing of the performance. This pipeline is fully 3D, which yields high flexibility in the use of the animated character. Real detailed 3D face dynamics, observed at video frame rate for thousands of points ...

Human facial morphology varies considerably among individuals and can be influenced by gene polymorphisms. We explored the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on facial features in the Uygur youth population of the Kashi area in Xinjiang, China. Saliva samples were collected from 578 volunteers, and 10 SNPs previously associated with variations in facial physiognomy were genotyped...

In this paper, we discuss some key aspects for the maintenance of biological diversity in grassland–forest mosaics in southern Brazil (Campos Sulinos) not explored yet. Campos Sulinos are grasslands distributed throughout the Pampa and the Atlantic Forest biomes. Since these grasslands remain from past dryer and colder climatic conditions, they are acknowledged as native rather than anthropogen...

We investigated annual litterfall and leaf decomposition rate in a cerrado site. We collected woody plant litter monthly from April 2001 to March 2002 and from July 2003 to June 2004. We placed systematically 13 litter traps (0.5 x 0.5 m) in a line, 10 m one from the other. We sorted litter into 'leaves', 'stems', 'reproductive structures', and 'miscellanea' fractions, oven-dried them at 80 deg...

Canopy gaps express the time-integrated effects of tree failure and mortality as well as regrowth and succession in tropical forests. Quantifying the size and spatial distribution of canopy gaps is requisite to modeling forest functional processes ranging from carbon fluxes to species interactions and biological diversity. Using high-resolution airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), we m...

Assistant Professor of Botany, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; and Professor, Department of Botany, University of California, Davis, California. Abstract: Matorral/chaparral and phrygana/ coastal sage vegetation types of Israel and California exhibit major differences in life form spectra, physiognomy, species richness, fire adaptations, spinescence, and leaf traits. In some cases it ...

Intelligent systems (neural networks, expert, knowledge, decision support and other systems) in construction can be used on the national, organization and project levels. However, most of all neural networks, knowledge, decision support and expert systems are seeking to find how to make the most economic construction decisions, and most of all these decisions are intended only for economic obje...

The remote sensing image can not only show the panorama information of the fault distribution, but also offer the information about the geology, physiognomy and digital elevation with high precision. In this paper we took the Hangzhou area as the example and systematically introduced the application of the remote sensing technology in the optimal design of the shallow artificial seismic line, a...