Hayes, T. B.: EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENTAL ENDOCRINOLOGY AND BEHAVIORIAL ECOLOGY: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING THE STRESS RESPONSE IN WESTERN TOADS (BUFO BOREAS) We showed that exogenous corticosterone (CORT) decreased growth and development in early larval stages, but increased development and stimulated metamorphosis during later stages in the western toad (Bufo boreas). Later, we showed that […]

Orchinik, M.*; Breuner, C.; Gasser, P.; Jennings, D.: Diversity and Plasticity in Corticosteroid Action. Stressor-induced increases in plasma corticosteroid (CORT) levels produce many physiological and neurochemical responses that serve, in large part, to facilitate appropriate behavioral responses to imminent threats. The behavioral responses to CORT are varied, being time-, context- and species-specific. Comparative studies can […]

PERRIN, M.H.; LEE, K-F.; BALE, T.*; LEWIS, K.; VAUGHAN, J.; VALE, W.: Diverse Roles of Corticotropin Releasing Factor Receptors and Their Ligands Corticotropin releasing factor, CRF, plays a major role in homeostasis by mediating the endocrine, autonomic, immune and behavioral responses to stress. The actions of CRF result from activation of its receptors, CRF-R1 and […]

GREENBERG, N. B.: Causes and Consequences of The Stress Response in Reptiles Real or perceived changes in the environment of a lizard can evoke adaptive behavioral responses that are coordinated by the neural and endocrine mechanisms of the stress response. Acute responses, involving catecholamines released in varying proportion at different sites along their sympathetic pathways […]

REGA, E.A.: The “dynamic digital human” in research, entertainment and education The demand for human anatomical material in teaching at the undergraduate and professional school level is enormous, as attested to by the sheer volume of (expensive) textbooks, manuals and study aids on the market and the number of academic positions whose primary teaching responsibilities […]

REDD, J.: Modeling Fur and Feathers and the Need to Balance Perception, Science, and Entertainment Artistic decisions are constantly made regarding the presentation of characters in films, especially when fanciful characters are placed into realistic or photorealistic environments. When animating or digitally producing a clearly fanciful character, care must be taken to adopt certain elements […]

POLCYN, D.M.: From Creepy Crawlies to Cuddly Critters: Can Arthropods Really Be Tweaked Enough to Capture the Nation’s Attention? In a nation which spends billions of dollars a year to kill arthropods, in which people young and old would rather swat an insect than observe it, it seems hard to imagine how film studios could […]

GATESY, S.M.: Dinosaur Feet, Pigeon Wings, and 3-D Animation: Entertaining Science? Software developed for the entertainment industry is a valuable resource for biologists and paleontologists interested in studying motion. Despite rather steep learning curves, high-end packages contain tools ideally suited for modeling organic structures, controlling articulated elements, importing video/film sequences, and running dynamic simulations. My […]

KRENTZ, D.: Design of Digitally Animated Characters: Biological Solutions for Fantastic Situations Design of animals in animated films must balance the needs to make them believable as organisms and interesting as characters that interact with a defined storyline. Morphological construction for organisms focuses initially on musculoskeletal anatomy. Initial designs attempt to remain as true to […]

HYNEMAN, W.: Creation of an animated human musculo-skeletal system In spite of enormous interest, realistic animation of the range of movements of the human skeleton has not yet been achieved by existing bio-medical software. Utilising commercially-available three-dimensional scans of the human skeleton and range of motion data compiled from the scientific literature, a model of […]