The traditional view of local politics and government in the Philippines is not flattering: elected officials are personalistic faction leaders (or worse, bosses or warlords) interested in parlaying their personal wealth and power rather than promoting good governance. Thus, it could be argued that decentralization by shifting power away from a reforming center to powerful irresponsible local p...

Narcissists pursue superiority and status at frequent costs to their relationships, and social comparisons seem central to these pursuits. Critically, these comparison tendencies should distinguish narcissism from healthy self-esteem. We tested this hypothesis in a study examining individual differences in everyday comparison activity. Narcissists, relative to those with high self-esteem, (1) m...

It is both flattering and humbling to be asked to address this topic, since quite a few people at this meeting could address it equally well or better. In fact, Koji wrote a review with almost exactly the same title 20 years ago (1). However, each of us would address the area somewhat differently. Over the years I have had the privilege of examining blastocysts and implantation sites of a large...

Mankind has been exploiting plant chemicals in the form of potions and poisons for thousands of years. The attitude toward the physiological significance of this plethora of small molecules is reflected in the terminology that was assigned to them: secondary metabolites. Less flattering terms were also assigned: waste products, metabolic leftovers, and excrement. Two schools of thought concerni...

The purpose of this research is to study any effects of managerial strategies on prevention of ketosis metabolic disorder in transition period in Shahroud commercial dairy farms. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared in order to obtain required information about the performance of these managerial strategies, performance costs, involvement situation with disorders relying upon clinical...

Firm dynamics in poor countries show striking differences to those of rich countries. While some firms indeed experience growth as they age, many firms are simply stagnant in that they neither exit nor expand. We interpret this fact as a lack of selection, whereby producers with little growth potential survive because innovating firms do not expand enough to force them out of the market. To exp...