Despite the fact that sustainability of bushmeat hunting in tropical areas is of major concern for conservation and development practitioners, we still know very little about how to measure sustainability and how to put in place sustainable bushmeat hunting systems. We review the current limits of traditional methods used to investigate sustainability of bushmeat hunting, discuss the need to in...

Abstract We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) for screening hormone deficiency (GHD) to determine usefulness IGF-1 as a test. Among 298 consecutive children who had short stature or decreased height velocity, we measured levels and performed (GH) secretion test using clonidine, arginine, and, in cases with different results two tests, L-dopa. Patients con...

This paper presents some aspects related to the issues of aggregating economic indicators. Departing from the research of Gh. Paun (1983) we will prove a theorem which states that under certain, natural assumptions, it is impossible to obtain an optimum aggregation. Unlike the original work of Paun, in this paper we are giving a rather simple proof of this theorem.

The validity of the Michaelis-Menten-Briggs-Haldane approximation for single enzyme reactions has recently been improved by the formalism of the total quasi-steady-state approximation. This approach is here extended to fully competitive systems, and a criterion for its validity is provided. We show that it extends the Michaelis-Menten-Briggs-Haldane approximation for such systems for a wide ran...

In December 2003, seventeen years after the first UK research assessment exercise, Italy started up its first-ever national research evaluation, with the aim to evaluate, using the peer review method, the excellence of the national research production. The evaluation involved 20 disciplinary areas, 102 research structures, 18,500 research products and 6,661 peer reviewers (1,465 from abroad); i...

Ameisen: Die heimliche Weltmacht (Ants: Nature's Secret Power) is a nature documentary about ants. Wolfgang Thaler wrote, filmed, and directed the film, which focuses on the work of ant researcher Bert Hölldobler. The 2004 film was produced by Adi Mayer Film for Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting), a public service broadcaster headquartered in Vienna, Austria. Ants: Nature's Secre...

The hypothesis that marriage increases men's earnings has contributed to legislative support for the Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI). However, previous studies of this phenomenon have not controlled for many relevant characteristics that select men into marriage, nor have they focused on low-income, unmarried fathers-the population targeted by HMI. We use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbe...

The Taiwan Quality Indicator Project (TQIP) is a quality management program that measures and monitors the healthcare quality of hospitals in Taiwan. This paper examines the impact of TQIP participation on hospital productivity growth with the application of the Malmquist productivity change index based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Analyzing operations data from 31 TQIP regional hospital...

For maintaining a steady food supply, the trend has been toward developing factorylike production methods in Japan. To date, there has been no indicator that can predict the growth status of crops. We have accordingly focused on the bioelectric potential inside the plant, which could be an indicator of plant growth. However, a few research studies have been conducted on its role in determining ...