Although the concept of specialization has played a central role in the development of ecological and evolutionary theory, important questions about specialization remain largely unanswered. We argue that the traditional division of specialization into evolutionary and ecological factors may be less useful than considering specialization as three components, which may not be mutually exclusive:...

Many physical diseases have been reported to be associated with psychosocial factors. In these diseases, assessment relies mainly on subjective symptoms in natural settings. Therefore, it is important to assess symptoms and/or relationships between psychosocial factors and symptoms in natural settings. Symptoms are usually assessed by self-report when patients visit their doctors. However, self...

Ecological momentary assessment and/or experience sampling methods are increasingly used in health studies to study subjective experiences within changing environmental contexts. In these studies, up to 30 or 40 observations are often obtained for each subject. Because there are so many measurements per subject, one can characterize a subject's mean and variance and can specify models for both....

Although ecologists have long recognized the salience of persistence in determining the static and the dynamic behavior of ecological systems, it is only very recently that economists have begun to study this concept in relation to the use of services that are provided by jointly determined ecological-economic systems (ecosystems). As such, there are very few studies of ecosystems that explicit...

following annual report of new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis from different areas of kuhpayeh district, esfahan county, an investigation was carried out on some ecological aspects of phlebotomine sand flies during 2000-2002. sand flies were collected biweekly from outdoor and indoor resting places with the aid of 30 sticky traps from the be ginning to the end of the active season. female san...

The Ethics Committee’s Mandate 1. Starting point and principles 1.1. Brief description of “Terminator” technology 1.2. Patenting 1.3. State of knowledge 1.4. State of the international discussion 2. Elements of the ethical evaluation 2.1. Research and economic aspects 2.2. Social aspects 2.3. Ecological aspects 2.4. Aspects of the dignity of creation 2.5. Impact of patenting “Terminator” techno...