Background: Sunlight is the main source of vitamin D; therefore, environmental factors might have an important role in the high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in children. This study aimed to assess the vitamin D status according to the climate of the living area in a nationally representative sample of Iranian adolescents. Material and Methods: This nationwide cross-sectional survey was perfo...

BACKGROUND Despite intensive vector control efforts, dengue epidemics continue to occur throughout Southeast Asia in multi-annual cycles. Weather is considered an important factor in these cycles, but the extent to which the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a driving force behind dengue epidemics remains unclear. METHODS We examined the temporal relationship between El Niño and the occu...

[1] We report on detailed observations by the four Cluster spacecraft of magnetic reconnection and a Flux Transfer Event (FTE) at the magnetopause. We detect cold (eV) plasma at the magnetopause with two independent methods. We show that the cold ions can be essential for the electric field normal to the current sheet in the separatrix region at the edge of the FTE and for the associated accele...

It is known that overweight is associated with chronic knee pain (CKP) and chronic low back pain (CLBP). Several risk factors for these conditions have been postulated, including age, sex, overweight, occupation, and socioeconomic factors. In addition, physical environment has been studied as a potential risk factor in recent years. However, the associations of overweight and physical environme...

Recently, land use and land cover change have received increased attention, and an approach is required that can assess agricultural land use intensity on a general basis. This study demonstrated the usefulness of a tool for characterizing and assessing agricultural land use intensity in Beijing mountainous region. An emergy analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were adopted to obtain...

Many regions around the world concentrate a large number of highly endangered species that have very restricted distributions. The mountainous region of central Veracruz, Mexico, is considered a priority area for amphibian conservation because of its high level of endemism and the number of threatened species. The original tropical montane cloud forest in the region has been dramatically reduce...

Fossil records indicate that the genus Pinus L. split into two subgenera by the Late Cretaceous, although subgenus Strobus (D. Don) Lemmon is less well documented than subgenus Pinus L., especially in eastern Asia. In this paper, Pinus maomingensis sp. nov. is established based on a compressed seed cone from the upper Eocene of the Maoming Basin of southern China. This species is attributed to ...

Khan-Magomedov’s publication Pioneers of Soviet Architecture (1987, English translation) provided scholars outside the socialist world with an introduction to what we now know as Russian Constru...