First Records of Five Shorebird Species for Flores, Indonesia: Asian Dowitcher Limnodromus semipalmatus, Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrines, Ruff Philomachus pugnax, Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata and Broad-billed

This paper documents the first island records of five migrant waders on Flores, Nusa Tenggara, based on 21 brief surveys in east-central and south-central Flores. On 8 October 2004, four Asian Dowitchers Limnodromus semipalmatus and a Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus were seen on Pangabatang Island, a small sand islet off Maumere. At Tambak Koliaduk aquaculture ponds (Maumere), two adult Ruff Philomachus pugnax were recorded on 5 December 2004, and a Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata on 19 December 2005 . Finally, two Broad-billed Sandpipers Limicola falcin ellus were obser-Ved at Ende estuary in south-central Flores on 17 October 2006. Given the relatively low survey effort in the region, it is likely that most of these species are regular visitors in small numbers to Flores and Timor

New and significant bird records for Solor, Adonara, and Lembata (Lomblen) islands, Lesser Sundas

The birds of the island of Solor were last investigated about 150 years ago when Charles Allen, an assistant of Lord Alfred Wallace, collected four species. During a one-day visit in 2005 the first author recorded an additional 47 species, including 33 resident land birds. A total of 37 species, including ten new island records, were observed on Adonara over a 2-day period in January 2005 and a brief visit in 2009. The second author recorded 33 species over four days on Lembata, including seven new island records. Few of the new island records for these three islands involved resident forest birds. A notable exception was the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx erythacus on Lembata, extending its easterly limits. The avifaunas of Solor, Adonara and Lembata are species-poor subsets of the Flores mainland avifauna; only three species - Olive-headed Lorikeet Trichoglossus euteles (Adonara, Lembata), Common Cicadabird Coracina tenuirostris (Lembata) and Broad-billed Flycatcher Myiagra ruficollis (Lembata) – are absent from Flores. The forest avifauna of these islands remains poorly known and deserves further attention

Status of shorebirds on Flores island, Wallacea, Indonesia, and identification of key sites

The shorebirds of most Wallacean islands, including Flores (13,540 km2), are poorly-known. We document new information on the status of shorebirds on Flores from more than 611 visits to 37 sites during 2000-2013, and review records from a total of 55 sites. Forty-two shorebird species have been recorded on Flores: five resident breeding species (e.g. Comb-crested Jacana Irediparra gallinacea and Javan Plover Charadrius javanicus), one probable breeding-visitor (Greater Painted-snipe Rostratula benghalensis), 33 Palearctic non-breeding visitor, one Nearctic vagrant, and two Austral non-breeding visitors (Australian Pratincole Stiltia isabella and Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles). The Greater Painted-snipe is the only species that has not been recorded during the past 40 years. Coastal wetland sites are relatively small (<1,000 ha) and lack extensive intertidal mudflats. Maximum total counts of migratory shorebirds were low (<500-1,000 birds) with only four migrant shorebirds counts of >100 individuals. Most Palearctic migrants were rare, with 19 of 33 species recorded on fewer than 10 occasions/days. The Labuan Bajo area (22 migratory shorebirds) and Maumere Bay (28 migratory shorebirds) are at least nationally significant sites for shorebirds. Other interesting results were the: (1) presence of Javan Plover at Labuan Bajo which may regularly hold more than 1% of the global population; (2) the rarity of Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis, Curlew Sandpiper C. ferruginea, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper C. acuminata and Australian Pratincole, which occur frequently, and in substantially larger numbers, on nearby Timor Island; and (3) the absence of several migrant shorebirds which apparently overfly Flores (e.g. Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa and Red Knot Calidris canutus). We also make suggestions for further field surveys. © AWSG

Worldwide experience with biosimilar development

Limited access for high-quality biologics due to cost of treatment constitutes an unmet medical need in the US and other regions of the world. The term “biosimilar” is used to designate a follow-on biologic that meets extremely high standards for comparability or similarity to the originator biologic drug that is approved for use in the same indications. Use of biosimilar products has already decreased the cost of treatment in many regions of the world and now a regulatory pathway for approval of these products has been established in the US. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) led the world with the regulatory concept of comparability and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was the first to apply this to biosimilars. Patents on the more complex biologics, especially monoclonal antibodies, are now beginning to expire and biosimilar versions of these important medicines are in development. The new Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) allows the FDA to approve biosimilars and allows the FDA to lead on the formal designation of interchangeability of biosimilars with their reference products. The FDA's approval of biosimilars is critical to facilitating patient access to high-quality biologic medicines and will allow society to afford the truly innovative molecules currently in the global biopharmaceutical industry's pipeline

On the Classification of Diagonal Coset Modular Invariants

We relate in a novel way the modular matrices of GKO diagonal cosets without fixed points to those of WZNW tensor products. Using this we classify all modular invariant partition functions of $su(3)_k\oplus su(3)_1/su(3)_{k+1}$ for all positive integer level $k$, and $su(2)_k\oplus su(2)_\ell/su(2)_{k+\ell}$ for all $k$ and infinitely many $\ell$ (in fact, for each $k$ a positive density of $\ell$). Of all these classifications, only that for $su(2)_k\oplus su(2)_1/su(2)_{k+1}$ had been known. Our lists include many new invariants.Comment: 24 pp (plain tex