Deciduous tree species throughout the boreal forest of North America have lighter-coloured bark than do species restricted to more southern forests. We tested the hypothesis that light-coloured bark minimizes the thawing and freezing of cambium tissue during winter that could contribute to sunscald injury. During mid-winter, maximum midday cambium temperatures of south-exposed bark of white bir...

The English artist Patrick Hughes has created an extraordinary class of painted artpieces, most commonly referred to as 'reverspectives'. They consist of truncated pyramids and prisms with their smaller faces closer to the viewer, in such a way as to allow a realistic scene to be painted on them. The works of art contain rich perspective and other painted cues that conspire to elicit an illusor...

This paper describes an ongoing project to digitally record, reconstruct and repaint a 2000-year-old painted Roman statue from Herculaneum, Italy. The paper considers the archaeological potential for extremely detailed laser scanning and digital recreation of Roman statuary, and visualisation within a physically accurate context. It focuses on the archaeological significance of the emerging tec...

Photographers often wish to control the depth of field. In particular, for portrait photography, a shallow depth of field can have dramatic effects on the composition and the feel of the picture. For example, a shallow depth of field can help direct attention to the subject by blurring out objects too close or too far from the camera, such as distracting objects or faces. Also, focusing on an o...

Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are commercially harvested in large numbers in Minnesota for sale to biological supply companies and the pet trade. We investigated the possible effects of this harvest by comparing size, demography, and catch rates of painted turtles in 12 harvested and 10 nonharvested painted turtle populations in 2001 and 2002. We correlated turtle catch rates to harvest sta...

The Painted Rocksnail, currently known as Leptoxis taeniata, is a federally threatened species native to the Mobile River basin in Alabama, USA. Presently restricted to four disjunct populations, the species is at considerable risk of extinction after a range decline of over 95% in the 20th century because of habitat alteration following impoundment of the Coosa River. Here, we reassess the ide...