The allocation of limited resources to competing body parts during development may affect both the absolute and relative sizes of physical traits, creating potentially dramatic consequences for the evolution of morphology. While negative correlations between the sizes of body parts...

The Smith-Fretwell model for optimal offspring size assumes the existence of an inverse proportional relationship (i.e., trade-off) between the number of offspring and the amount of resources invested in an individual offspring; virtually all of the many models derived from theirs make the same...

This paper proposes a new method to measure and analyse the typology of regional economic growth and convergence The model was originally developed by biologists in their study of morphological change of organisms. The paper investigates Italian regions using data of Gross Domestic Product per...

The existence of fractal-like networks effectively endows life with an additional fourth spatial dimension. This is the origin of quarter-power scaling which is so pervasive in biology. Organisms have evolved hierarchical networks which terminate in invariant units, such as capillaries, leaves,...

Computer simulation modeling for policy development in planning has had difficulty gaining a consistent foothold. Reasons for this include bad experiences with large-scale, comprehensive models (e.g., Forrester, 1969) and the lack of theory that one can quantify (Batty, 1994). Batty (1994) has...

A prominent feature of comparative life histories in the well documented negative correlation between growth rate and life span [1,2]. Patterns of resource allocation during growth reflect life-history differences between species [1,2]. This is particularly striking in tropical forests, where...

The innovation is a main variable of the economic growth, but the origin and diffusion of innovations are functions of several variables. For this reason, the contributions of other disciplines have been used to understand in depth its behaviour and spatial-temporal dynamic. The aim of this...

This paper aims to determine and analyse the typology and intensity of the economic growth through an approach to the structure of the allometric models, previously developed by biologists. It could be important for political decision-takers to know the type of growth since it allows the...

Allometric scaling is one of the most pervasive laws in biology. Its origin, however, is still a matter of dispute. Recent studies have established that maximum metabolic rate scales with an exponent larger than that found for basal metabolism. This unpredicted result sets a challenge that can...