New ammonoid data prove an early Late Pliensbachian deepening event above the ?Late Hettangian-Sinemurian shallow-subtidal gray-reddish micro-oncoidal-foraminifera grainstone facies and ?early deeper-marine micro-oncoidal-crinoidal-ammonoid wacke- to packstone facies. Based on presence of Fuciniceras lavinianum (Fucini), Lytoceras ovimontanum Geyer Arieticeratinae gen. indet. from a hardground ...

CONTEXT The world health organization (WHO) recommends that all blood donations should be screened for evidence of infections, such as hepatitis B. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in blood donors at the eastern Mediterranean region office (EMRO) of the WHO and middle eastern countries. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION A meta-analysis was carried ...

Age-estimates ranging from 50 to 70 ky were obtained for the Mousterian deposits of Amud Cave in Israel from thermoluminescence measurements performed on 19 burnt flints. The late dates obtained for the stratigraphic layers bearing hominid remains confirm the evidence for the late presence of Neanderthals in the Levant. The dates enable a more effective comparison of the lithic assemblages from...

BACKGROUND The origin of the Etruscan civilization (Etruria, Central Italy) is a long-standing subject of debate among scholars from different disciplines. The bulk of the information has been reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeological findings and, in the last few years, through the analysis of uniparental genetic markers. METHODS By meta-analyzing genome-wide data from The 1000 Gen...

Independent studies by both the World Health Organisation and the World Bank in 1990 have estimated that about 500,000 people lose their lives each year as a result of road accidents and over 15 million suffer injuries. A recent TRL study has reported a realistic estimate for the year 1999 for global road deaths to be between 750,000 and 880,000 (Jacobs et al, 1999). The majority of these, abou...

An orphan drug is a drug developed specifically to treat a rare medical condition. With a combined population of less than 400 million, about 2.8 million patients are estimated to be suffering from a rare disease in the Middle East. Some disorders such as hemoglobinopathy, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, autosomal recessive syndromes, and several metabolic disorders have a presenc...