The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
A simple, selective and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the measurement of josamycin residues in four porcine tissues (i.e., muscle, liver, kidney and fat). The sample preparation consisted of a homogenization step in an acetonitrile
In arguments concerning weight, the final arbiter is a cylindrical piece of a platinum-iridium alloy kept in an airtight chamber in Sevres, France, which is deemed to weigh exactly I kg. But a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist says that he has a more precise alternative -the mass of an …
By harvesting the world's first crop of genetically-engineered wheat, the Swiss-owned Ciba Seeds has shown that scientists can alter the characteristics of important cereals reliably, by giving them genes from other species. Within a few years, the work is expected to result in new wheat varieties with increased resistance to …
All's well that end well for the plump toddlers. France has finally decided to give up its 12-year effort to build a large Antarctic landing strip at the French base of Dumont d'Urville, on Terre-Adelie, near a penguin rookery and bird sanctuary. France had turned a deaf ear to the …
Connoisseurs who have savoured the renowned French wine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, for the past 40 years may be surprised to learn that its vintages from the 1950s contained high levels of lead (Nature, Vol 370, No 6484). Belgian and French researchers analysed 19 vintages of the wine and found they contained toxic …
SCIENTISTS have recently confirmed the presence in the lungs of asthmatics of an enzyme that produces nitric oxide, which damages cells lining the airways. Nitric oxide was known to be present in the air exhaled by asthmatics but the enzyme -- nitric oxide synthase -- that triggered its production in …
NEWBORN children whose mothers suffer from a severe form of AIDS may develop the disease quicker, a recent French study reveals. The finding by Stephane Blanche and his colleagues at the Paris-based Hospital Necker Enfants Malades, could help prevent the pre-natal transmission of the infection (The New England Journal of …
FRANCE'S pioneering "green oil" fuel, being pushed by the nation's powerful farmers' lobby, is catching Europe's attention. Already, filling stations in several French metros supply green oil, which is produced with grain, oilseeds or sugarbeet. Although it is not considered a substitute for petrol and diesel, European Union states are …
CAMEROON'S forests are being hijacked by France. The Cameroon Post, the country's leading news daily, recently reported that France had agreed to cancel half the
WOOD has again emerged as a popular heating fuel in Germany and France. A programme launched seven years ago in the thickly wooded Landes region of southwestern France to promote wood as fuel has proved remarkably successful. The plan was essentially aimed at clearing waste left behind by loggers and …
THE ENVIRONMENTALIST group Loire Vivante is creating waves in France. Following its five-year-long protest movement, the French government has decided to shelve a controversial dam project on the Loire, the country's longest river. For more than a century, government planners have endeavoured to harness the Loire. The scheme for the …
THE AGREEMENT at the conclusion of the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has come as a victory of sorts for French farmers, even if it does not spare them the current low agricultural prices. The agreement, signed on December 15 in Geneva after seven …
When a team of young French civil servants selected by the Paris-based Foundation Nationale Entreprise et Performance (FNEP) visited India in the second week of November, the media was quick to assume they had come to India with a technology offer. A press release from an apex industry organisation further …
ONE EXPECTS doctors to refrain from overdosing the patient. But do they really do that? Apparently not, as is evidenced by experiences in some European countries such as France and Italy. The governments of these nations are spending twice as much on medicines per capita than others without any significant …
Virtual reality has done it again. It is now possible to watch a filmed "tour" of the Abbey of Cluny in France in all its splendour. The abbey, which was built in the 10th century, was among the largest of its time and destroyed after the French Revolution. It has …
RISKING a split with the Conservative government, French President Francois Mitterrand said in an interview with Austrian media, that France and other atomic powers should refrain from breaking the moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. The Conservative government is under strong pressure from its parliamentarians and the defence establishment to reverse …
PROMPTED by the publicity resulting from the "ghost-like stare" of a dead accident victim, the French government is taking a hard look at the country's organ transplant system. The blank stare of Christophe Tesniere was because his eyes had been surgically removed and replaced with glass eyes, so that the …
TURTLES, bought originally as children's pets at the height of the Mutant Ninja Turtle craze, are posing a serious threat to bathers in the French Riviera. Biologists say the pet turtles, abandoned and flushed down lavatories or discarded in lakes, have flourished in the hot climate and absence of predators. …
WHEN FRENCH mathematician Pierre de Fermat died in 1655, he had not written down the proof of a theorem, "which this margin (of my notebook) is too small to contain". More than three centuries later, Andrew Wiles of Princeton University claims to have proved Fermat's Last Theorem. The theorem states …
ISRAELI potato growers have dug in for a fight to the finish against McDonald's of Big Mac hamburger fame, which is due to open its first outlet in Israel outside Tel Aviv in autumn. McDonald's says it wants to import frozen fries because irrigation has made the wholesale prices of …
