BACKGROUND Despite the limited genetic heterogeneity of Spanish populations, substantial evidences support that historical African influences have not affected them uniformly. Accounting for such population differences might be essential to reduce spurious results in association studies of genetic factors with disease. Using ancestry informative markers (AIMs), we aimed to measure the African i...

More than 100 species of vertebrates in the Pacific Northwest use standing dead trees (snags) at one time or another in their lifecycle (Thomas et al. 1979a, Neitro et al. 1985). With few exceptions, investigators have found significant correlations between snag density and the abundance of primary cavity-nesters in North American coniferous forests (Raphael and White 1984:47-53, Madsen 1985, Z...

BACKGROUND The main objective was to investigate the burden of birth defects among alive infants and explore the impact of maternal lifestyle during pregnancy on the burden of birth defects in Northwest China. METHODS A stratified multi-stage sampling method was used to study infants born during 2010-2013 (and their mothers) in Shaanxi province of Northwest China. Socio-demographic informatio...

One century after the discovery of Chagas disease, it is still considered as a major health problem, causing more deaths in the Americas than any other parasitic disease. The northwest region of São Paulo, a macro-region that includes cities with a high-quality of life, has particularly high rates of Chagas disease. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the number of patients with Chagas diseas...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the prevalence and determinants of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among adults in a rural area of Northwest China. METHODS A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2010 among adults aged 18 to 80 years in rural areas of Hanzhong, in Northwest China. Interview, physical and clinical examinations, and fasting blood glucose and lipid measurements were completed...

The historical May-October mean temperature since 1831 was reconstructed based on tree-ring width of Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia Kom.) collected on Mt. Dongda, North of the Hexi Corridor in Northwest China. The regression model explained 46.6% of the variance of the instrumentally observed temperature. The cold periods in the reconstruction were 1831-1889, 1894-1901, 1908-1934 and 1950-19...

OBJECTIVE To determine, through the use of molecular diagnostic tools, whether the two species of parasite that cause human African trypanosomiasis have become sympatric. DESIGN Blood sampling of all available patients between June 2001 and June 2005 in central Uganda and between July and September 2003 in northwest Uganda and analysis of subcounty sleeping sickness records in Uganda between ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the status of the vitamin B12 and folate of Chinese women living in northwest China. METHODS A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2008 among Chinese women aged 10-49 years living in Shaanxi province of northwest China. A stratified multistage random sampling method was adopted to obtain a sample of 1170 women. The women were interviewed for collection ...

The 28 June 1992 Big Bear earthquake occurred at 15:05:21 GMT and is considered to be an af tershock of the earlier Mw = 7.3 Landers earthquake. F rom overall aftershock locations and long-period focal studies, rupture is general ly assumed to have propagated northeast. No surface rupture was found, however , and the mainshock locations determined f rom both strong motion and TERRAscope data ar...

Thiol substances can form stable complexes with metals (especially copper and mercury) in the surface ocean that can impact cycling and bioavailability of those elements. In this study, I present seven concentration profiles of cysteine and glutathione, two low-molecular weight thiols, from the coastal northwest Atlantic Ocean and the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) sampling site in the Sar...