Over 400 species of insects have been found in association with eastern hemlock in the southern Appalachians. Eastern hemlock stands provide an ideal habitat for all life stages of mycetophilids. However, the diversity, distribution and co-occurrence patterns of these species throughout the tree canopy are unknown. This study was initiated to evaluate abundance, species richness and species com...

Eric Davis ([email protected]) is professor of political science at Rutgers University and former director of Rutgers’ Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He is the author of Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq (University of California Press, 2005). This article is based on his presentation at FPRI’s October 2004 History Institute, ‘‘A New Middle E...

Although millions of automatic teller machines (ATMs) are currently used all over the world, users of ATMs still have usability problems including inappropriate user-ATM interaction, display problems and others. Many developed countries already have standards in place for ATMs. However, this is not the case in many other countries. This paper aims to assess certain dimensions of ATM machines an...

The Middle Eastern population is aging rapidly, and as aging is the main risk factor for cancer, the incidence and prevalence of that disease are increasing among all the populations in the region. These developments represent huge challenges to national and community-based health services. At the current state of affairs, most Middle Eastern countries require the cooperation of international a...

We predict gravity from a three-dimensional Vp model of the upper crust and compare it to the observed isostatic residual gravity field. In general this comparison shows that the isostatic residual gravity field reflects the density variations in the upper to middle crust. Both data sets show similar density variations for the upper crust in areas such as the Peninsular Ranges and the Los Angel...

This article is derived from a broader study of ethno-botany, medical anthropology and alternative medicine in Middle Eastern countries, which has been conducted during the past two decades. It presents examples of different edible and medicinal plants and their uses by different communities (urban, peasant and Bedouin) in the treatment of diseases and various medical disorders. Alongside, the ...

The ethnopharmaceutical approach is important for the discovery and development of natural product research and requires a deep understanding not only of biometabolites discovery and profiling but also of cultural and social science. For millennia, epigeous macrofungi (mushrooms) and hypogeous macrofungi (truffles) were considered as precious food in many cultures based on their high nutritiona...

Madagascar is located at the crossroads of the Asian and African worlds and is therefore of particular interest for studies on human population migration. Within the large human diversity of the Great Island, we focused our study on a particular ethnic group, the Antemoro. Their culture presents an important Arab-Islamic influence, but the question of an Arab biological inheritance remains unre...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by recurrent episodes of fever and serosal, synovial, or cutaneous inflammation, caused by a dysfunction of pyrin as a result of mutation within the MEFV gene. It occurs mainly among Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations, including Jews, Arabs, and Turks. However, FMF cases have been reported outside the M...