The function of the sanitary service in war is to keep the greatest possible number of men in the firing line, by excluding preventable disease from the fighting force. We now fully recognise that in tropical and subtropical countries, more than in temperate regions, it is infective disease, rather than injuries inflicted by the enemy, that depletes the fighting ranks. The war statistics of all...

Understanding the factors shaping species distribution patterns along tropical rainfall gradients is necessary to predict the consequences of climate change for tropical tree communities. Direct effects of water availability exclude wet forest species from dry forests, but the exclusion of dry forest species from wet forests remains unexplained. We tested the hypothesis that high light and nutr...

The influence of environmental factors on forage quality of temperate and tropical grasses has been reviewed by several authors, who summarized how light, temperature, drought and soil nutrients influence chemical composition, and digestibility of forages grown in contrasting areas of the world. The effects of season of the year on forage growth, grazing behavior and animal performance have als...

To evaluate the prevalence of varicella-zoster virus infection in young adults from different Brazilian urban regions, 975 serum samples from blood donors aged 20 to 29 years, from tropical climate cities (Salvador and Fortaleza) and from temperate climate cities (S o Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre) were tested by an in-house ELISA for detection of anti-varicella-zoster virus IgG antibodies. ...

Tropical forests are regions of relative thermal stability and so, although equatorial regions are expected to experience less climate warming than the global average in coming years, tropical trees might be more vulnerable to change. But are they? In this issue of Journal of Experimental Botany, Slot and Winter (2017) provide one of the most comprehensive studies on thermal acclimation of trop...

Natural resources have been attracted a great deal of attentions and have been frequently exploited for many years. Dust is one of natural disasters mainly in recent years; here, in south west of Iran, it had destroyed the rangelands. The dust has detrimental effects on the rangelands, livestock and livestock production. High concentrations of dust may lead to the coughing, nasal discharge, whe...

Differences in species richness between regions are ultimately explained by patterns of speciation, extinction, and biogeographic dispersal. Yet, few studies have considered the role of all three processes in generating the high biodiversity of tropical regions. A recent study of a speciose group of predominately New World frogs (Hylidae) showed that their low diversity in temperate regions was...

Scorpionism is a known significant problem of medical and social importance in many tropical and subtropical regions including the Middle East. In Iran, highest prevalence of scorpion sting about 60% of all the stings has been reported from Khuzestan province. Among the 21,000 cases of reported scorpion stung patients, 12% were caused by H. lepturus, but contributed to 95% of all moralities in ...

a r t i c l e i n f o Fossil pollen analyses from northern Lake Malawi, southeast Africa, provide a high-resolution record of vegetation change during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (~ 18–9 ka). Recent studies of local vegetation from lowland sites have reported contrasting rainfall signals during the Younger Dryas (YD). The Lake Malawi record tracks regional vegetation changes and allows ...

The overall project goal is to assess the skill of the probabilistic nature of mediumand extended-range forecasts of tropical cyclone activity and track over the tropical WPAC. Skill is examined with respect to processes associated with forcing by various tropical circulation factors, which are hypothesized to be the largest contributor to low-frequency variation in tropical cyclone activity an...