Concerns over the effects of private land use on the supply of environmental amenities have led to an increasing global reliance on conservation contracting initiatives (Ferraro and Kiss 2002). The term “conservation contracting” describes the contractual transfer of payments from one party (e.g., government) to another (e.g., landowner) in exchange for land use practices that contribute to the...

We would like to thank Allen W. Heinemann and Anne Deutsch for their commentary (1) on our paper (2). We entirely concur with their reminder of the debt owed by many to the work of Benjamin Wright and Mike Linacre at the Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics and Assessment (MESA) Psychometric Laboratory in Chicago, USA. It was through their efforts that, by-and-large, the Rasch model was dissemin...

Abstract Ian Serraillier is best remembered for his children’s book, The Silver Sword , first published in 1956. However, along with wife Anne, he was also instrumental creating New Windmill Series, an imprint of Heinemann Educational Books, and one the collections teenage fiction aimed education market. This article discusses way which Serraillier’s ideological beliefs, rooted Quaker faith, ca...

To Maria, Vagelis and Panagiotis ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a really trivial task trying to rank a long list of colleagues and friends, who all have contributed, materially or mentally, in the successful accomplishment of this work. In order to avoid listing them after 'importance', I would rather introduce a chronological order and start with my teacher and professor at the Medical School of Patra...

STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE There are two species of pilot whales in the Western Atlantic — the Atlantic or long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, and the short-finned pilot whale, G. macrorhynchus. These species are difficult to identify to the species level at sea; therefore, some of the descriptive material below refers to Globicephala sp., and is identified as such. The spec...