results we included 66 eligible studies. the pooled prevalence of hbsag in blood donors of both emro and middle eastern (e and m) countries was 2.03% (95% confidence interval [ci]: 1.79 – 2.26). in addition, the prevalence rates in the emro countries was 1.99% (95% ci: 1.84 – 2.14) and 1.62% in the middle eastern countries (95% ci: 1.36 – 1.88). the prevalence among blood donors with more than ...

the north atlantic oscillation (nao) is one of the most prominent modes of low-frequency variability over the atlantic basin in the northern hemisphere. in the past decades, the impact of nao has attracted increasing scientific interest because the nao exerts an important impact on the regional climate and weather in the north atlantic region and adjacent continents. of particular interest is t...

Hydatid disease is a parasitic disease that is endemic in many parts of the world, especially in South America, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean region, including Turkey. This article presents an unusual case of subcutaneous hydatid cyst in the right medial side of the thigh. According to our world literature search, few cases are reported. This site of localization is ...

this study was aimed to assess the causes of the structural decline in the renewal rate of apristine oak forest close to rome (central italy) by analyzing long-term measurements of the water budget in open and fenced areas. despite dry climate conditions in the area, long-term soil moisture measurements at 100 cm soil depth indicated that an enough large amount of water is available to oaks dur...

greece has experienced particularly severe and frequent forest fires during summer 2007 together with exceptionally dry meteorological conditions culminated in distinct heat waves. the present study analyzes the time pattern of daily values of two fire risk indices (nesterov and angstrom) based on meteorological data made available for a number of gauging stations between 1 june and 31 august o...

land vulnerable to desertification increased in the mediterranean basin since world war ii dueto several interacting factors including climate variations, land-use changes and growing human pressure. itwas hypothesized that the increase in the level of land vulnerability is not distributed homogeneously overtime and space while impacting preferentially landscapes surrounding large urban agglome...

the present study illustrates the long-term changes in selected socioeconomic variables (population,industrial activities, settlement dispersion, and land-use) together with climate aridity trends in thriasio, the larger industrial area of greece located twenty kilometers far from athens. this region, originally devoted to agriculture, experienced fast industrial and economic development during...

The five Mediterranean regions of the world comprise almost 50,000 plant species (ca 20% of the known vascular plants) despite accounting for less than 5% of the world's land surface. The ecology and evolutionary history of two of these regions, the Cape Floristic Region and the Mediterranean Basin, have been extensively investigated, but there have been few studies aimed at understanding the h...

OBJECTIVE To assess the adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern in the population from a coastal region from north-east Spain and its relationship to diseases, applying the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (M-DQI) validated by the use of several biomarkers. DESIGN Cross-sectional nutrition survey. SETTING Population-based random sample derived from the Catalan Nutrition Survey. SUB...

The genus Prionotropis Fieber, 1853 is revised. It is distributed in scattered areas of the Mediterranean region from Turkey in the East to Spain in the West. Overall, seven species are listed, namely P. maculinervis (Stål, 1878) (Turkey; P. urfensis Ramme, 1933 is here considered its synonym), P. willemsorum n. sp. (Greece, Epirus; previously considered P. appula), P. appula (O.G. Costa, 1836)...