BACKGROUND The follow-up rate, a standard index of the completeness of follow-up, is important for assessing the validity of a cohort study. A common method for estimating the follow-up rate, the "Percentage Method", defined as the fraction of all enrollees who developed the event of interest or had complete follow-up, can severely underestimate the degree of follow-up. Alternatively, the media...

BACKGROUND The issue of poor response rates to population surveys has existed for some decades, but few studies have explored methods to improve the response rate in follow-up population cohort studies. METHODS A sample of 100,000 adults from the 45 and Up Study, a large population cohort in Australia, were followed up 3.5 years after the baseline cohort was assembled. A pilot mail-out of 500...

I consider two issues concerning how to monitor global poverty for the Millennium Development Goals, the selection of poverty lines, and the data sources for monitoring poverty over time. I discuss the choice of a single international line, converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates, versus the use of country-specific poverty lines. I note the difficulties in constructing PPP ...

During the design of ABR tra c management at the ATM Forum, we performed several analyses to ensure that the ABR service will operate e ciently over satellite links. In the cases where the performance was unacceptable, we suggested modi cations to the tra c management speci cations. This paper describes one such issue related to the count of missing resource management cells (Crm) parameter of ...

We tested whether the reduction of metabolic rate (MR) in hibernating Cercartetus nanus (Marsupialia, 36 g) is better explained by the reduction of body temperature (Tb), the differential (ΔT) between Tb and air temperature (Ta), or thermal conductance (C). Above the critical Ta during torpor (Ttc) of 4.8 ± 0.7°C, where the Tb was not regulated, the steady-state MR was an exponential function o...

Many animal-pollinated plant species have been introduced to non-native regions without their usual pollinators. Nevertheless, some of these alien species managed to establish reproducing naturalized populations, which might negatively affect native plants. Recent studies have shown that many naturalized alien species can readily attract native pollinators. However, it is not known whether alie...