The future of pensions has been a prominent issue in French public debate for at least fifteen years. Two key events were the release of the report entitled “Aging in Solidarity” (Vieillir solidaires) by the State Planning Commission (Commissariat Général du Plan) in 1986 [1, 2] and that of the “White Paper on Pensions” (Livre blanc sur les retraites) in 1991 [3]. Since then, the topic has stay...

The first quarter of 2004 found French public research laboratories in unprecedented turmoil, partly from the budget cuts made since 2002, and partly from 550 permanent civil service jobs being turned into fixed-term contract appointments. It is this latter minimal cost-saving measure around which the debate has crystallized. For the government, it reflected an aim to see greater diversificatio...

A the end of 2003 the human population crossed a historic, but so far little noticed, threshold: more than 50 per cent of the world’s people now live in a country or a region in which fertility is below 2.1 children per woman, the level conventionally regarded as indicating long-run replacement of the population (see boxes 1 and 2) [1]. A convenient way to illustrate this is to plot a curve tha...

Introduction The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the regulations enforced to control it caused significant alterations in daily routines worldwide. Lockdowns, remote working schooling favoured virtual interactions increased “free-time”, with internet posing as a preferential means of distraction. Statistics from pornographic websites have shown rise traffic during lockdown periods, problema...

Hwei-yu Chang and Fei-Jann Lin (1995) The interac tion between chrom osomal inversion and recessive lethals in Drosophila albomicans. Zoological Studies 34(1): 47-54. In order to reveal the mechanism for the high heterozygosity of an inversion on the left arm of the second chromosome, In(2L)B ,os, several pure lines were established of Drosophil a albomicans for an esterase dimer locus (Est-F)....

First described in 1843, Rumen protozoa with their striking appearance were assumed to be important for the welfare of their host. However, despite contributing up to 50% of the bio-mass in the rumen, the role of protozoa in rumen microbial ecosystem remains unclear. Phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA libraries generated from the rumen of cattle, sheep, and goats has revealed an unexpected diver...