Population Structure Analyses Provide Insight into the Source Populations Underlying Rural Isolated Communities in Illinois

We have previously hypothesized that relatively small and isolated rural communities may experience founder effects, defined as the genetic ramifications of small population sizes at the time of a community’s establishment. To explore this, we used an Illumina Infinium Omni2.5Exome-8 chip to collect data from 157 individuals from four Illinois communities, three rural and one urban. Genetic diversity estimates of 999,259 autosomal markers suggested that the reduction in heterozygosity due to shared ancestry was approximately 0, indicating a randomly mating population. An eigenanalysis, which is similar to a principal component analysis but ran on a genetic coancestry matrix, conducted in the SNPRelate R package revealed that the majority of these individuals formed one cluster with a few putative outliers obscuring population variation. An additional eigenanalysis on the same markers in a combined data set including the 2,504 individuals in the 1000 Genomes database found that most of the 157 Illinois individuals clustered into one group in close proximity to individuals of European descent. A final eigenanalysis of the Illinois individuals with the 503 individuals of European descent (within the 1000 Genomes Project) revealed two clusters of individuals and likely two source populations; one British and one consisting of multiple European subpopulations. We therefore demonstrate the feasibility of examining genetic relatedness across Illinois populations and assessing the number of source populations using publicly available databases. When assessed, it becomes possible for population structure information to contribute to the understanding of genetic history in rural populations

Late Adherent Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Form Bone and Restore the Hematopoietic Microenvironment In Vivo

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) are a valuable resource for skeletal regenerative medicine because of their osteogenic potential. In spite of the very general term “stem cell,” this population of cells is far from homogeneous, and different BMSCs clones have greatly different phenotypic properties and, therefore, potentially different therapeutic potential. Adherence to a culture flask surface is a primary defining characteristic of BMSCs. We hypothesized that based on the adherence time we could obtain an enriched population of cells with a greater therapeutic potential. We characterized two populations of bone marrow-derived cells, those that adhered by three days (R-cells) and those that did not adhere by three days but did by six days (L-cells). Clones derived from L-cells could be induced into adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic differentiation in vitro. L-cells appeared to have greater proliferative capacity, as manifested by larger colony diameter and clones with higher CD146 expression. Only clones from L-cells developed bone marrow stroma in vivo. We conclude that the use of late adherence of BMSCs is one parameter that can be used to enrich for cells that will constitute a superior final product for cell therapy in orthopedics

TERAPIA CULTURAL PARA IDOSOS: ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA DOS BENEFÍCIOS DA DANÇA REGIONAL VERSUS FISIOTERAPIA CONVENCIONAL E DIRETRIZES PARA APLICAÇÃO

O envelhecimento populacional tem sido uma realidade crescente em todo o mundo e, consequentemente, as necessidades de cuidados com a saúde da terceira idade também têm aumentado. A Terapia Cultural, que envolve a prática de danças tradicionais regionais, tem se mostrado uma alternativa interessante para a melhora da qualidade de vida dos idosos (ALMEIDA, 2011). A terapia cultural é uma prática terapêutica que se baseia na compreensão dos indivíduos dentro de seus contextos culturais, levando em consideração suas crenças, valores e tradições. Isso é particularmente útil em comunidades com práticas culturais distintas, bem como em indivíduos que experienciam traumas específicos relacionados a questões culturais (DIAS et al.,2016). Esta terapia é baseada na ideia de que a atividade física, junto com a prática de atividades culturais, pode ajudar a melhorar o humor, a saúde mental e o bem-estar geral dos idosos. Além disso, as danças tradicionais regionais podem trazer um senso de orgulho e conexão com a comunidade, o que é especialmente importante para aqueles que estão envelhecendo (OLIVEIRA; FERREIRA, 2011). Um exemplo de como o fisioterapeuta pode trabalhar esse tema é por meio da aplicação de atividades culturais, como a dança regional, como uma alternativa à fisioterapia convencional para idosos (RODRIGUES, 2008). O profissional pode realizar uma avaliação dos idosos em relação às suas capacidades físicas e cognitivas, bem como identificar quais atividades culturais seriam mais adequadas para cada um. Na dança regional, o fisioterapeuta pode incluir exercícios de postura, equilíbrio, coordenação, fortalecimento muscular e alongamento, por exemplo. Além disso, a dança pode proporcionar um ambiente social e de lazer para os idosos, ajudando a melhorar sua qualidade de vida de forma geral (PEREIRA, 2012). O fisioterapeuta também pode orientar os idosos sobre a importância da prática regular de atividades físicas e culturais para a manutenção da saúde e prevenção de doenças na terceira idade, e incentivá-los a procurar grupos de dança regional em suas comunidades ou oferecê-los em clínicas e instituições de saúde (RODRIGUES,2008). É importante ressaltar que a terapia cultural para idosos deve ser realizada com cuidado e respeito às limitações individuais de cada idoso, e sempre em conjunto com os familiares e outros profissionais de saúde envolvidos no cuidado do idoso (COUTINHO et al., 2009). Além disso, a terapia cultural é uma ferramenta essencial na promoção da diversidade, da tolerância e da inclusão. Aumentar a empatia e a compreensão entre diferentes culturas é um objetivo fundamental dessa abordagem terapêutica, que pode ser particularmente útil em situações em que indivíduos de diferentes culturas precisam lidar com diferenças culturais (SILVA et al.,2019)

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data

Núcleos de Ensino da Unesp: artigos 2008

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq