Socioeconomic Status Is Not Related with Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry: Evidence from Latin-American Populations

The expression of facial asymmetries has been recurrently related with poverty and/or disadvantaged socioeconomic status. Departing from the developmental instability theory, previous approaches attempted to test the statistical relationship between the stress experienced by individuals grown in poor conditions and an increase in facial and corporal asymmetry. Here we aim to further evaluate such hypothesis on a large sample of admixed Latin Americans individuals by exploring if low socioeconomic status individuals tend to exhibit greater facial fluctuating asymmetry values. To do so, we implement Procrustes analysis of variance and Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) to estimate potential associations between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and socioeconomic status. We report significant relationships between facial fluctuating asymmetry values and age, sex, and genetic ancestry, while socioeconomic status failed to exhibit any strong statistical relationship with facial asymmetry. These results are persistent after the effect of heterozygosity (a proxy for genetic ancestry) is controlled in the model. Our results indicate that, at least on the studied sample, there is no relationship between socioeconomic stress (as intended as low socioeconomic status) and facial asymmetries

Functional impairment of systemic scleroderma patients with digital ulcerations: results from the DUO Registry

OBJECTIVES: Digital ulcers (DUs) are frequent manifestations of systemic scleroderma (SSc). This study assessed functional limitations due to DUs among patients enrolled in the Digital Ulcer Outcome (DUO) Registry, an international, multicentre, observational registry of SSc patients with DU disease. METHODS: Patients completed at enrolment a DU-specific functional assessment questionnaire with a 1-month recall period, measuring impairment in work and daily activities, and hours of help needed from others. Physician-reported clinical parameters were used to describe the population. For patients who completed at least part of the questionnaire, descriptive analyses were performed for overall results, and stratified by number of DUs at enrolment. RESULTS: This study included 2327 patients who completed at least part of the questionnaire. For patients with 0, 1–2, and ≥3 DUs at enrolment, mean overall work impairment during the prior month among employed/self-employed patients was 28%, 42%, and 48%, respectively. Across all included patients, ability to perform daily activities was impaired on average by 35%, 54%, and 63%, respectively. Patients required a mean of 2.0, 8.7, and 8.8 hours of paid help and 17.0, 35.9, and 63.7 hours of unpaid help, respectively, due to DUs in the prior month. Patients with DUs had more complications and medication use than patients with no DUs. CONCLUSIONS: With increasing number of DUs, SSc patients reported more impairment in work and daily activities and required more support from others

Human Archaeological Dentin as Source of Polar and Less Polar Metabolites for Untargeted Metabolomic Research: The Case of Yersinia pestis.

Peer reviewed: TrueFunder: St John’s College, CambridgeFunder: McDonald Institute for Archaeological ResearchMetabolomic approaches, such as in clinical applications of living individuals, have shown potential use for solving questions regarding the past when applied to archaeological material. Here, we study for the first time the potential of this Omic approach as applied to metabolites extracted from archaeological human dentin. Dentin obtained from micro sampling the dental pulp of teeth of victims and non-victims of Yersinia pestis (plague) from a 6th century Cambridgeshire site are used to evaluate the potential use of such unique material for untargeted metabolomic studies on disease state through liquid chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Results show that small molecules of both likely endogenous and exogenous sources are preserved for a range of polar and less polar/apolar metabolites in archaeological dentin; however, untargeted metabolomic profiles show no clear differentiation between healthy and infected individuals in the small sample analysed (n = 20). This study discusses the potential of dentin as a source of small molecules for metabolomic assays and highlights: (1) the need for follow up research to optimise sampling protocols, (2) the requirements of studies with larger sample numbers and (3) the necessity of more databases to amplify the positive results achievable with this Omic technique in the archaeological sciences.McDonald Institute for Archaeological Researc

Human Archaeological Dentin as Source of Polar and Less Polar Metabolites for Untargeted Metabolomic Research: The Case of Yersinia pestis

Metabolomic approaches, such as in clinical applications of living individuals, have shown potential use for solving questions regarding the past when applied to archaeological material. Here, we study for the first time the potential of this Omic approach as applied to metabolites extracted from archaeological human dentin. Dentin obtained from micro sampling the dental pulp of teeth of victims and non-victims of Yersinia pestis (plague) from a 6th century Cambridgeshire site are used to evaluate the potential use of such unique material for untargeted metabolomic studies on disease state through liquid chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Results show that small molecules of both likely endogenous and exogenous sources are preserved for a range of polar and less polar/apolar metabolites in archaeological dentin; however, untargeted metabolomic profiles show no clear differentiation between healthy and infected individuals in the small sample analysed (n = 20). This study discusses the potential of dentin as a source of small molecules for metabolomic assays and highlights: (1) the need for follow up research to optimise sampling protocols, (2) the requirements of studies with larger sample numbers and (3) the necessity of more databases to amplify the positive results achievable with this Omic technique in the archaeological sciences.McDonald Institute for Archaeological Researc

The adaptor protein GULP promotes Jedi-1-mediated phagocytosis through a clathrin-dependent mechanism

During the development of the peripheral nervous system, the large number of apoptotic neurons generated are phagocytosed by glial precursor cells. This clearance is mediated, in part, through the mammalian engulfment receptor Jedi-1. However, the mechani