BACKGROUND A case definition of Gulf War illness with 3 primary variants, previously developed by factor analysis of symptoms in a US Navy construction battalion and validated in clinic veterans, identified ill veterans with objective abnormalities of brain function. This study tests prestated hypotheses of its external validity. METHODS A stratified probability sample (n = 8,020), selected f...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184832.].

Despite over US $200 million having been spent researching illnesses following the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War, the nature and cause of such illnesses remains controversial. In this narrative review, we discuss some of the methodological issues that have affected epidemiological studies on this topic. These include low-response rates, ascertainment bias, recall bias, problems identifying suitable ...

In this context, the continued use of the word 'accident' causes me concern. Sir Francis Bacon wrote 'For men converse by means of language, but words are imposed according to the understanding of the crowd; and there arises from a bad and inapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind'. So I believe it is with the inapt word 'accident'. To 'the crowd' the word implies some sort o...

The symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) closely correspond to the physiological and behavioural sequelae of an interleukin-1 (IL-1) mediated sickness response. We propose that this response can account for the variability in its symptomatology. Furthermore, the persistence of GWS can be accounted for by an associative process, whereby the smells/tastes of war become linked with the physiologica...

The well-documented Floridian Gulf/Atlantic marine genetic disjunction provides an influential example of presumed vicariant cladogenesis along a continental coastline for major elements of a diverse nearshore fauna. However, it is unclear if this disjunction represents a local anomaly for regionally distributed morphospecies, or if it is merely one of many such cryptic phylogenetic splits that...

The Persian Gulf and its shores are important and strategic areas with a large variety of fish species. Betanodavirus infection is known to be a serious threat to susceptible fish and causing economic damages to the fisheries and fishing industry. Concerning to isolation and confirmation of VNN virus in the Mullet fish (Chelon aurata and C. saliens) in the Caspian Sea and its damages on Mullet ...

Abstract. Precipitation in the Upper Indus Basin is triggered by orographic interaction and forced uplift of a cross-barrier moisture flow. Winter precipitation events are particularly active this region driven an approaching upper-troposphere western disturbance. Here statistical tools used to decompose winter time series into wind contribution. The relationship between each contribution distu...

Cephalopod specimens assigned to the Argonautidae ( Obinautilus pulchra Kobayashi, 1954 and an unknown taxon) from two localities of Mishan Formation in Gohreh Khorgu sections, Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, are reported for first time Persian Gulf area. The co-existing foraminifera confirm middle Miocene age strata. Based on micropalaeontological data, previous Oligocene Obinautilus pulchra is e...