Intorduction Dead Sea is a hypersaline lake with 34% salinity, gains its name due to the absence of any living macroscopic creatures. Despite the extreme hypersaline environment, it is a unique ecosystem for various halophilic microorganisms adapted to this environment. Aims & Objectives Halophilic microorganisms are known for various potential biotechnological applications, the purpose of th...

Research using animals suggests that a lesion in the basal portion of the cochlea, causing a high-frequency 'dead region', leads to cortical reorganization, such that frequencies just below the edge frequency of the dead region, fe, become over-represented. We set out to determine if this reorganization has functional benefits. Two groups of subjects were tested, with and without acquired high-...

BACKGROUND The Dead Sea basin, the lowest terrestrial point on earth, is recognized as a natural treatment center for patients with various cutaneous and rheumatic diseases. Psoriasis is the major skin disease treated at the Dead Sea with excellent improvement to complete clearance exceeding 85% after 4 weeks of treatment. These results were postulated to be associated with a unique spectrum of...

Recent changes in the timing of sea ice formation and retreat, along with increasing seawater temperatures, are driving shifts in marine species composition that may signal marine ecosystem reorganization in the Pacific Arctic sector. Interannual variability in seasonal sea ice retreat in the northern Bering Sea has been observed over the past decade; north of the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea...

Penetration of electrolytes through the human skin was measured in healthy volunteers and in psoriatic patients after bathing in the Dead-Sea or in simulated bath-salt solutions. Significant increases in the levels of serum Br, Rb, Ca and Zn were noticed only in the psoriatic patients after daily bathing in the Dead-Sea for a 4-week regimen. Guinea-pigs "bathed" in simulated Dead-Sea bath-salt ...

BACKGROUND Mucositis and dermatitis are frequently encountered in patients treated with radiochemotherapy. Dead Sea products that contain minerals and other properties have proven effective in treating various skin diseases. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of Dead Sea products in reducing acute radiochemotherapy-induced side effects in patients with head and neck cancer. METHODS In...

BACKGROUND The unique, black, hypersaline mud mined from the Dead Sea shores is extensively used in mud packs, masks, and topical body and facial treatments in spas surrounding the lake, and in cosmetic preparations marketed worldwide, but little is known about its antimicrobiological properties. METHODS We performed detailed microbial and chemical analysis of Dead Sea mineral mud compounded ...

Consider a binary image containing one or more objects. A signed distance transform assigns to each pixel (voxel, etc.), both inside and outside of any objects, the minimum distance from that pixel to the nearest pixel on the border of an object. By convention, the sign of the assigned distance value indicates whether or not the point is within some object (positive) or outside of all objects (...

More than sixty years of intensive research on the Dead Sea Scrolls have not yet yielded up a satisfactory identity for the mysterious Teacher of Righteousness. This paper claims the simplest yet most plausible argument so far for an identity. The results of a comprehensive inferential survey are first discussed, followed by the argument that the murdered Onias III is the first Teacher of Right...