BACKGROUND Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, known as Rhazes in the Western world (854-925 CE), was an Iranian polymath, physician and one of the most prominent sages in the medieval period. He wrote several medical books and treaties such as "Continents", a comprehensive medical encyclopedia, treaties in smallpox and measles, "Al-Mansuri" and many other important manuscripts in the medi...

BACKGROUND Wild vegetables in the Mediterranean Basin are still often consumed as a part of the diet and, in particular, there is a great tradition regarding their use in Sicily. In this study, an ethnobotanical field investigation was carried out to (a) identify the wild native taxa traditionally gathered and consumed as vegetables in Sicily, comparing the collected ethnobotanical data with th...

The objective of most pest management programs is to "control" the pest species. However, optimal control of local abundance and population growth may require different management strategies than optimal control of spatial spread. We use coupled demographic-dispersal models to address the relative importance of different management approaches to these two main control objectives for the invasiv...

Synthetic musk fragrances are widely used as replacements for natural musks not only in perfumes but also in soaps, toiletries and disinfectants. The worldwide annual production of musk fragrances ranges between 6000 and 8000 metric tons per year, of which nitroand polycyclic musks represent 30 and 70%, respectively. As a result of their inherently low biodegradability, nitroand polycyclic musk...

We investigated the influence of postsynaptic tyrosine kinase signaling in a mouse model of muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) myasthenia gravis (MG). Mice administered repeated daily injections of IgG from MuSK MG patients developed impaired neuromuscular transmission due to progressive loss of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) from the postsynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction. In this model...

Introduction: Silymarine extract is currently prescribed by some physicians for treatment of fatty liver disease. In the present study, the effect of administration of tablet containing silymarine extract on plasma homocysteine (Hcy), folate, vitamin B12 and liver enzymes activity in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) was investigated. Materials and Methods: Seventy-four patients (40 female a...

Fire damage and tree characteristics of mixed deciduous oak woodlands were recorded after a prescription burn in the summer of 1999 on Mt. Hamilton Range, Santa Clara County, California. Trees were tagged and monitored to determine the effects of fire intensity on damage, recovery and survivorship. Fire-caused mortality was low; 2-year post-burn survey indicates that only three oaks have died f...