Stunting resistance was recorded in two different ways in the present study: 1) As the absolute plant height at the onset of maturity of inoculated plants, and 2) as performance (mean heightinoculated/mean heightcontrol ×100).
This is of great clinical significance as height at the onset of puberty has an important influence on adult height [ 7, 8, 15- 18].
It would have been of interest to have more data on certain parameters such as parental height, age and height at the onset of puberty; duration of puberty; height gain during puberty; bone age; weight/BMI; mean exposure to study drug, and glucose parameters.
Moreover, because insufficient height at the onset of puberty leads to short final height, early diagnosis and treatment of GHD are necessary to allow catch-up growth to optimal height before puberty [11].
Plants were 18 weeks old and 90 110 cm in height at the onset of treatments, and 150 180 cm tall at sampling.
Pubertal growth was calculated as the difference in cm between the height at the onset of breast development and the AH [ 13], and the duration of puberty was calculated as the time between this onset and the first menstruation.
In the recent paper by J.P. Le Roux [Coastal Engineering 54 (2007) 271 277], the author provides a simplified approach to calculating the depth, length, and height of waves at the onset of depth-induced breaking (i.e. at the breaker line).
The height gain between the onset of puberty and the achievement of the AH (26.0 ± 4.7 cm) was greater than that reported by Tanner et al. [ 13] during normal puberty (25 cm).
The plants were grown in 17-cm pots on soil (C-400 with Cocopor [Stender Erden, Schermbeck Germany] fertilized with 3 g/l Osmocote exact standard 3 to 4 M [Marysville, USA]) with additional light for 16 hr per day until 50 to 60 cm height and before the onset of flowering.
Several measurements were taken for each focal plant to assess plant fitness, including days to first flower (phase 6, Boyes et al., 2001), height of longest inflorescence at the onset of silique maturation and total seed mass.
During puberty total height gain (cm) from the onset of puberty to the end of growth can be described.
