The objective of this study is to understand the calcareous nannoplankton response to past environmental changes in the Strait of Hormuz during the Holocene. Calcareous nannoplankton is well abundant in the living phytoplankton community and a key component of the marine sediments. Due to its distinct reaction to environment changes and its good preservation potential, it is well suited for p...

Flower morphology of 10 Fritillaria species of subgenera Theresia and Fritillaria growing wild in Iran is studied using seventy morphological characters. Qualitative and quantitative datasets separated taxa into subgenera, sectional and groups. Three enigmatic species F. caucasica, F. zagrica (endemic to Zagros Mountains) and F. pinardii (recently reported from Zagros Mountains) appeared as clo...

In laboratory medicine, several studies have described the most frequent errors in the different phases of the total testing process, and a large proportion of these errors occur in the pre-analytical phase. Schemes for registration of errors and subsequent feedback to the participants have been conducted for decades concerning the analytical phase by External Quality Assessment (EQA) organizat...

Sex chromosomes differ from other chromosomes in the striking divergence they often show in size, structure, and gene content. Not only do they possess genes controlling sex determination that are restricted to either the X or Y (or Z or W) chromosomes, but in many taxa they also include recombining regions. In these 'pseudoautosomal regions' (PARs), sequence homology is maintained by meiotic p...

Two taxa of cupulate magnoliid fossil flowers, Cronquistiflora and Detrusandra, are described from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian, ∼90 million years before present [MYBP]) Raritan (or lower Magothy) Formation of New Jersey. The fossil taxa are represented by flowers at various stages of development, associated fragments of cup-shaped floral receptacles with attached anthers, and isolated anthers...

Floodplain forests and wetlands are amongst the most diverse and species rich habitats on earth. Arthropods are a key group for the high diversity pattern of these landscapes, due to the fact that the change between flooding and drought causes in different life cycles and in a variety of adaptations in the different taxa. The floodplain forests and wetlands of Central Amazonia are well investig...

Several species of the subgenus Psychodopygus Mangabeira, 1941 are known to be leishmaniosis vectors in Brazil. Some of them are morphologically similar, which makes their identification quite difficult concerning epidemiological studies. The aim of the current work is to study the morphology of adult specimens of the subgenus Psychodopygus, in accordance with the morphological similarity and s...

Torsion and infarction of the greater omentum are two rare clinical situations which present as an acute abdomen. Nevertheless, knowledge concerning these two problems can help the surgeon in proper diagnosis and treatment. Since the first report on primary torsion by Eitel in 1899, a few hundred more have been reported and some collective reviews published to date. In this study we will p...

Allergies due to airborne pollen affect approximately 15-20% of European citizens; therefore, the provision of health related services concerning pollen-induced symptoms can improve the overall quality of life. In this paper, we demonstrate the development of personalized quality of life services by adopting a data-driven approach. The data we use consist of allergic symptoms reported by citize...

The neotropical freshwater family Potamotrygonidae appears to be the only stingray group that has radiated in a non-marine environment. To assess the affinities of potamotrygonids to other rays, a phylogenetic analysis was undertaken using 39 morphological characters from 18 stingray groups. The single tree produced (CI = 0.80, RI = 0.88) suggests that neotropical freshwater rays are a monophyl...