Ancient Faunal History Revealed by Interdisciplinary Biomolecular Approaches

Starting four decades ago, studies have examined the ecology and evolutionary dynamics of populations and species using short mitochondrial DNA fragments and stable isotopes. Through technological and analytical advances, the methods and biomolecules at our disposal have increased significantly to now include lipids, whole genomes, proteomes, and even epigenomes. At an unprecedented resolution, the study of ancient biomolecules has made it possible for us to disentangle the complex processes that shaped the ancient faunal diversity across millennia, with the potential to aid in implicating probable causes of species extinction and how humans impacted the genetics and ecology of wild and domestic species. However, even now, few studies explore interdisciplinary biomolecular approaches to reveal ancient faunal diversity dynamics in relation to environmental and anthropogenic impact. This review will approach how biomolecules have been implemented in a broad variety of topics and species, from the extinct Pleistocene megafauna to ancient wild and domestic stocks, as well as how their future use has the potential to offer an enhanced understanding of drivers of past faunal diversity on Earth

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

A.: Using Textual and Visual Processing in Scalable Concept Image Annotation Challenge

Abstract. This paper describes UAIC 1 's system built for participating in the Scalable Concept Image Annotation challenge 2015. We submitted runs both for Subtask 1 (Image Concept detection and localisation) and for Subtask 2 (Generation of Textual Descriptions of Images). For the first subtask we created an ontology with relations between concepts and their synonyms, hyponyms and hypernyms and also with relations between concepts and related words. For the second subtask, we created a resource that contains triplets (concept1, verb, concept2), where concepts are from the list of concepts provided by the organizers and verb is a relation between concepts. With this resource we build sentences in which concept1 is subject, verb is predicate and concept2 is complement

Preliminary data regarding the influence of the COL1a1 rs2249492 polymorphism on the risk of malocclusion in the Romanian population

Malocclusion is a condition characterized by diverse phenotypic expression patterns, with a complex underlying genetic background. COL1a1 is one of the genes that has been previously associated with malocclusion, with one particular SNP, rs2249492 (C>G, C>T), having been linked with an increased risk of skeletal class II malocclusion. In this paper, making use of DNA sequencing and cephalometric measurements, we present preliminary data regarding the association between the rs2249492 SNP and the risk of malocclusion in the Romanian population, illustrated as continuous, rather than categorical phenotypes. The results show a tendency towards a Class II pattern determined by mandibular retrognathism, rather than maxillary prognathism among the individuals possessing the mutant allele. Subsequent studies on larger sample sizes should include statistical analysis focused on associations between the rs2249492 allele and continuous phenotypic variation inside, but not restricted to Class II malocclusion, in order to acquire a more detailed picture of the interaction between the polymorphism and this complex condition. Toparcean et al (PDF) Article history: Received 1 October 2021; Revised 19 November 2021; Accepted 26 November 2021; Available online 30 December 2021. &nbsp

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study

Background: Preoperative SARS-CoV-2 vaccination could support safer elective surgery. Vaccine numbers are limited so this study aimed to inform their prioritization by modelling. Methods: The primary outcome was the number needed to vaccinate (NNV) to prevent one COVID-19-related death in 1 year. NNVs were based on postoperative SARS-CoV-2 rates and mortality in an international cohort study (surgical patients), and community SARS-CoV-2 incidence and case fatality data (general population). NNV estimates were stratified by age (18-49, 50-69, 70 or more years) and type of surgery. Best- and worst-case scenarios were used to describe uncertainty. Results: NNVs were more favourable in surgical patients than the general population. The most favourable NNVs were in patients aged 70 years or more needing cancer surgery (351; best case 196, worst case 816) or non-cancer surgery (733; best case 407, worst case 1664). Both exceeded the NNV in the general population (1840; best case 1196, worst case 3066). NNVs for surgical patients remained favourable at a range of SARS-CoV-2 incidence rates in sensitivity analysis modelling. Globally, prioritizing preoperative vaccination of patients needing elective surgery ahead of the general population could prevent an additional 58 687 (best case 115 007, worst case 20 177) COVID-19-related deaths in 1 year. Conclusion: As global roll out of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination proceeds, patients needing elective surgery should be prioritized ahead of the general population