Abroad, but also in The Netherlands, there are many misunderstandings concerning end of life decisions and euthanasia. In general, euthanasia does not play any role in the intensive care units, simply because it does not fulfill the conditions to carry it out. However, there is still confusion, merely due to the assumption that the Dutch situation is different because of their legislation on eu...

This paper studies stock and mutual life insurance company formations in the first half of the 20th century. A common belief is that the growth of state consumer protection regulation rendered the mutual form irrelevant, but the paper finds little evidence connecting such regulation with declines in the form’s popularity. The exception is the initial capital requirement. Mutuals were formed alm...

The origin of life is one the most fascinating problems of biology. The classic Miller-Urey experiment was carried out almost 60 years ago. In the experiment sparks were shot through primordial atmosphere consisting of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water and the outcome was many of the aminoacids essential for life. The findings raised the optimism that the key to the understanding of the orig...

The peptidoglycan wall is a defining feature of bacterial cells and was probably already present in their last common ancestor. L-forms are bacterial variants that lack a cell wall and divide by a variety of processes involving membrane blebbing, tubulation, vesiculation and fission. Their unusual mode of proliferation provides a model for primitive cells and is reminiscent of recently develope...

objective: in iran, psychological aspect of hiv infection is poorly understood. the purposes of this study were to evaluate sexual dysfunction, depression rate and health-related quality of life and evaluate the association between sexual dysfunction, depression and quality of life in a group of hiv+ subjects in shiraz, iran. methods: in this cross-sectional study, 278 male hiv-positive patient...

Saldaran protected region with about 14,000 hectares is located at longitude 50º34ʹE and latitude 32º4ʹN at 115 km of southwest of Shahr-e Kord City. This area is one of the important genetic resources in the Zagros Mountains. In the present study, floristic elements, life forms, chorological analysis, protected status, pasture and poisonous plants were investigated. All specimens were collecte...

We study residuals of parametric accelerated failure time (AFT) models for censored data, with the main aim of inferring the correct functional form of possibly misspecified covariates. We demonstrate the use of the methods by a simulated example and by applications to two reliability data sets. We also consider briefly a corresponding approach for parametric proportional hazards models.

The cactus life-form is cited as an example of a tight relationship between organism form and function: a succulent, long-lived, photosynthetic stem allows cacti to survive long periods of drought while maintaining a positive tissue water status. Pereskia (Cactaceae) comprises 17 species of leafy shrubs and trees that are thought to represent the original cactus condition. Recent phylogenetic w...

Despite to its importance for retaining biodiversity and human health, urban wetlands have received much less attention than other wetland types in northern Iran. This study deals with the floristic characteristics of one of the largest urban wetlands in Central Mazandaran, Roshanabad wetland in Babol.  All vascular plants were collected during two growing seasons of 2014 and 2015 and water sam...