Introduction: Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) serotype A is endemic in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, while sporadic outbreaks occur in the southern Middle Eastern countries. Periodically new genetic lineages appear to spread in a westward direction from Iran into Turkey, the best known event being the spread of the A22 strain throughout the Middle East from 1964 onwards. The precise orig...

regime? What about the Iran-Iraq nuclear entanglement? Can both issues be dealt with under a regional arrangement? Can new global approaches be reconciled with a regional approach in the Middle East? This article attempts to identify and explore some of these issues, examining the Middle Eastern nuclear situation in light of the experience of Iraq, North Korea, South Africa, and Latin America. ...

BACKGROUND The best-known dangerous spiders belong to the six genera. The genus Loxosceles or violin spiders are well known for their ability to cause skin necrosis or loxoscelism. All Loxosceles species have medical importance due to their necrotizing venom. The present article reports the occurrence of L. rufescens in Charkhab Cave, south of Iran (Larestan). METHODS The specimens were colle...

Soybean is still a minor crop in Kazakhstan despite an increase in planting area from 4,500 to 11,400 km2 between 2006 and 2014. However, the Government's recently accepted crop diversification policy projects the expansion of soybean cultivation area to more than 40,000 km2 by 2020. The policy is targeting significant expansion of soybean production in South-eastern, Eastern, and Northern regi...

BACKGROUND Mortality refers to the death that occurs within a population. It is linked to many factors such as age, sex, race, occupation and social class. The incidence and prevalence of mortality could affect the population's standard of living and health care. The aim of this study was to explore the pattern of mortality trends in Iran, south-south west Asia and the world in 1970-2010. MET...

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) are widely distributed throughout the Old World. Most studies have focused on Europe and East Asia with the genetic diversity of West Asia being less well studied. In particular, the genetic variability and genetic structure of the Iranian populations are not yet known; gaps which prevent scientists from resolving the genetic relationships of the Eurasian wild boar. This ...

Throughout prehistory, the cultures of Iran and Western Asia differed in important respects. Many of these differencescan be attributed to the different geographic and environmental conditions in the two regions. Western Iran is largely aheavily divided mountainous region with difficult access whereas Mesopotamia is relatively flat and open to travel andtrade. The early Holocene environment of ...

Makran subduction zone, along the southern coasts of Iran and Pakistan, has a wide potential seismogenic zone may be capable generating large magnitude (M ~ 9) tsunamigenic earthquakes. Considering ambiguities exist in source characterization for megathrusts like Makran, where detailed geologic, seismic, geodetic data are insufficient, probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis (PTHA) is most preval...