Background. Several studies have reported an association between chronic pain and reduction of cognitive abilities of adults living in Western cultures. No literature could be found on the relationship between chronic pain and cognition among Middle Eastern adults. Objective. To compare four of the most commonly reported cognitive domains [memory, attention, processing speed, and executive func...

BACKGROUND Peri-conceptional use of folic acid supplements is recommended to prevent neural tube defects. Correct supplement use seems to be less common among ethnic minorities. We examined ethnic differences in folic acid supplement use before and during pregnancy and possible effect modification by education or planning of pregnancy. METHODS The participants were 811 healthy pregnant women ...

BACKGROUND The global burden of conduct disorder is a major public health concern. Although there are different reports on the prevalence of conduct disorder in different Middle Eastern countries, to date, no research has reviewed them. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the literature and present the prevalence of conduct disorder among children and adolesc...

In the modern world, government policy makers engage in the decision making process to pursue the interests of their countries. Think tanks play a significant role in this complicated process by giving advice to decision makers. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, think tanks increasingly emerged in the world, especially in Western European countries and the United States of America (...

conclusions in this study, phylogenetic reconstruction of hcv-1 sequences clearly indicated for molecular tracing and ancestral relationships of the hcv genotypes in iran, and showed the likelihood of domestic origin for hcv-1a and various origin for hcv-1b. evidence acquisition the phylogenetic analyses were performed based on the nucleotide sequences of ns5b gene of hcv genotype 1 (hcv-1), wh...

Inbreeding or consanguineous marriage is a common traditional practice in Middle Eastern cultures. Studies from various countries and communities of this region showed that the frequencies range from 20% to greater than 70%. Inbreeding is known to have adverse effects on morbidity and mortality, in particular with respect to autosomal recessive disorders. This study examined 200 couples represe...

Plant fossils are described from the Cuche Formation, Eastern Cordillera, Colombia in the area of Floresta. Those identified as Colpodexylon cf. deatsii Banks and cf. Archaeopteris sp. suggest an earliest Late Devonian (Frasnian) age for the formation. These or similar taxa are also found in contemporaneous deposits in western Venezuela, and other elements of the Venezuelan flora are found in a...

Probability distributions of stock market returns have typically been estimated from historical time series. The possibility of extreme events such as the stock market crash of 1987 makes this a perilous enterprise. Alternative parametric and nonparametric approaches use contemporaneously observed option prices to recover their underlying risk-neutral probability distribution. Parametric method...