BACKGROUND Vitamin D is essential for maintiiining bone health and growth throughout life. Vitamin D deficiency not only leads to bone metabolic diseases in children and adults but may increase the risk of many chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its relation with vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism. In addition the study inc...

background: pesticides have important effects on human health. due to the wide range of pesticide application and also involvement of more than 60% of people living in this study area in the agriculture, it is essential to assess the side effects of these biohazards. therefore, we designed this study to assess the impact of using pesticides on the health status of pistachio farmers, in rural ar...

This study determined the smoking rate in the urban population of Rafsanjan, Islamic Republic of Iran, in a random community sample of 491 adults (247 males and 244 females) aged > 20 years. The overall prevalence of current smoking (1+ cigarettes per day) was 24.2%; 38.5% in males and 9.8% in females. The mean number of cigarettes consumed per day was 12.1 [standard deviation (SD 8.6)]; 13.6 (...

One of the important purposes of hydrology is to ensure water supply in accordance with the quality criteria for agricultural, industrial, and drinking water uses. The groundwater is the main source of water supply in arid and semi-arid regions. This study was conducted to evaluate factors regulating groundwater quality in Rafsanjan plain. A total of 1040 groundwater samples randomly were colle...

Surveys for egg-parasitoid wasps were conducted in Rafsanjan, Iran, on two species of Pentatomidae (Hemiptera) found pistachio orchards, Acrosternum arabicum Wagner and Brachynema signatum Jakovlev. Five Scelionidae (Platygastroidea) recovered, including one that is here described as new: Psix saccharicola (Mani), Trissolcus colemani (Crawford), T. darreh Talamas sp. nov. , perepelovi (Kozlov),...