A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Typification of plant names published by Giovanni Casaretto based on specimens collected in Brazil and Uruguay

International audienceGiovanni Casaretto (1810-1879) was appointed by King Charles Albert of Savoy-Carignano, Kingdom of Sardinia, as the botanist and mineralogist of a planned circumnavigation of the globe. After collecting in a few localities in southern Brazil and Uruguay, Casaretto collected for almost nine months, from April to December 1839, in Rio de Janeiro and its vicinity. While in Rio, he also bought about 100 collections from Riedel and about 500 collections from Clausen, which were made in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Minas Gerais, which he re-numbered and integrated into his collections. He also made significant collections in the state of Bahia, and a few collections in and around Recife (Pernambuco). Based on the preceding collections, Casaretto published a total of 101 names (in 36 plant families, delimited according to APG III), of which, according to the present study, 27 names are currently accepted, 12 serve as basionyms for currently accepted names, 7 are illegitimate due to superfluity, and 55 are heterotypic synonyms of previously published names. All the 101 names of Casaretto are hereby typified, and Eugenia casarettoana Delprete is here proposed as a substitute name for an illegitimate later homonym. In addition, a lectotype and an epitype for Couratari estrellensis Raddi are here designated

Typifications and nomenclatural notes in Physalis (Solanaceae) from the United States

Physalis is an economically important and morphologically diverse genus of plants with solitary flowers and fruits that are enveloped by an inflated fruiting calyx. Although work to resolve phylogenetic relationships in this clade is ongoing, Physalis remains a taxonomically complex genus with multiple nomenclatural problems. Here, we review 28 species from the United States and their synonyms as well as clarification on the status of their types. We propose 53 typifications. We select a lectotype for 49 names and a neotype for three names (P. ixocarpa, P. linkiana, P. ramosissima). We additionally designate an epitype for P. longifolia.Fil: Pretz, Chelsea. University of Colorado; Estados UnidosFil: Deanna, Rocío. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Departamento de Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentina. University of Colorado; Estados Unido

Event generators for WW physics.

The report summarizes the results of the activities of the Working Group on Event Generators for WW Physics at CERN during 1995