sciences, maths and physics, than with the "human" aspects of the sciences which directly concern daily experience and the quality of life. Furthermore, the contributors are literary critics and historians, not scientists proper. Though this book is essentially a project initiated by the Humanities Faculty, it should be of wider interest. Its strength is its diversity; while the editors hanker ...

The Brazilian Cerrado is a vegetation mosaic composed of different physiognomies. Discussions remain open regarding the factors and processes responsible for the dynamic and spatial organization of the Cerrado - in its different physiognomies. The contributions of the complexity paradigm in this context are still less exploited, despite its great potential for explanations and predictions prese...

The Cerrado Biome is considered one of the world's biodiversity hotspots because of its rich biodiversity, the high level of endemism and the increasing threat. The Cerrado is composed by a mosaic of different vegetation types, including physiognomies that vary from grasslands (campo limpo) to savannas (typical cerrado or cerrado sensu stricto) and cerrado woodlands (cerradão). However, the fac...

We examined the development of racial categorizations of faces spanning the European-East Asian ("White-Asian") categorical continuum in children between the ages of four and nine as well as adults. We employed a stimulus set that independently varied skin color and other aspects of facial physiognomy, allowing the contribution of each to be assessed independently and in interaction with each o...

Gradients in the composition and diversity (e.g. number of species) of faunal assemblages are common at ecotones between juxtaposed habitats. Patterns in the number of species, however, can be confounded by patterns in abundance of individuals, because more species tend to be found wherever there are more individuals. We tested whether proximity to reefs influenced patterns in the composition a...

Modern soil and litter samples from southeastern Cameroon, collected along a continuous forest-savanna transect were analysed for pollen content to define modern pollen-vegetation relationships. The pollen results, completed and compared with botanical inventories, leaf area index and basal area measurements performed in the same area, clearly registered the physiognomy, the main floristic comp...

The relationship between leaf physiognomy and precipitation has been explored worldwide in regions under different climate conditions. Unlike the linear relationship established between the percentage of woody dicot species with entire margins and mean annual temperature, precipitation has been reported to correlate to different leaf physiognomic characters depending on the region where the cor...

Researchers at Wright State University have been working on modeling computer agents with personality. Perception of personality between humans is based on many factors, one of which includes facial expression. Many researchers have explored the ability to recognize emotion in faces, while other research focuses on perception of personality based on faces (physiognomy). The purpose of this stud...

From 1816 onwards, London theatres began to install gas-lighting systems to replace candles. In addition to allowing theatre managers to adjust the level of illumination, gas lights offered greater brightness and visibility for the audience. Actors had to adjust to this new level of exposure that threatened their ability to "look the part." Until this illuminating moment, there had been little ...