Lactase persistence (LP)-the ability to digest lactose in adulthood-is paradigmatic of Holocenic dietary change affecting the evolutionary trajectory of specific populations. Kuwait represents one location of high LP where the variation in associated genomic regions has not been examined. Here, we present new sequence data from a 427 bp amplicon 14 kb upstream of the LCT (lactase) gene for two ...

Housing is a fundamental human right and a social determinant of health. According to international law, indigenous peoples are entitled to special housing and health rights and protections. In Israel, land disputes between the government and Arab Bedouins, an indigenous minority, have resulted in ongoing demolitions of Arab Bedouin homes, with thousands more homes threatened. While demolitions...

BACKGROUND The study was initiated by public concern about exposure to an industrial park (IP) emission. The study examined whether mortality in the Bedouin population in the southern part of Israel is associated with the residential distance to the IP. MATERIAL AND METHODS Ecological study during 1995-2001 included the entire Bedouin population. Mortality data was obtained from the Central B...

BACKGROUND Clefts of the lip and palate are the most common significant congenital birth anomaly of the orofacial region. The condition may vary from a minor easily correctable cleft to a significant functional and cosmetic incapacitation. This is the first epidemiological study of orofacial clefts in the Negev region in Israel. OBJECTIVES To establish the frequency of cleft lip and palate in...

There are few data about the epidemiology of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) among children in Israel. This study was intended to identify risk factors for CA-MRSA colonization in healthy infants, to characterize the molecular features of colonizing organisms, and to determine whether they are responsible for health care-associated (HA) infections. Nas...

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. This phrase, attributed to Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War”, is a strong recommendation for generals to analyse a combat scenario before actually engaging in combat. This analysis can be understood to require some form of game analysis. In this paper we will discuss whether it is ...

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to compare eating patterns of Jews and Muslim Bedouins and investigate possible dietary causes for discrepancy in obesity rates. METHODS We pooled two surveys that included data from 793 Jews and 169 Bedouins aged 35-64years recruited from 1998 through 2003 in southern Israel. For the Jewish sample, we used a proportional geographic cluster random sample o...

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which changing gender roles in a Bedouin community in Upper Egypt, brought about by settlement over the last 20 years on the shores of Lake Nasser, have impacted on the accumulation and development of indigenous environmental knowledges by Bedouin women. The research was carried out among four groups of Ababda Bedouin in the Eastern Desert of ...