Russian Hunters on Svalbard and the Polar Winter

Ways of surviving in the High Arctic environment are among the most interesting problems addressed by archaeological research concerning hunting groups operating in these areas. The Svalbard archipelago affords a unique opportunity for comparative studies of arctic survival with respect to representatives from two different European cultural centers: the hunters from northern Russia and the western European whalers. The present paper concentrates on the Russian way of dealing with the polar winter. Both the documentary sources and the elements of material culture recovered during archaeological explorations reveal a relatively high level of adaptation to arctic conditions.Key words: polar winter, Svalbard, Pomorye, Russian hunting, Orthodox monasteriesMots clés: hiver polaire, Svalbard, Pomorye, chasse russe, monastères orthodoxe

Comparing Genetic Variation among Latin American Immigrants: Implications for Forensic Casework in the Arizona- and Texas-México Borderlands

The humanitarian crisis on the United States-México border is a long standing and evolving crisis in which nearly 8,000 deaths have been reported in the last two decades. These deaths are largely distributed across the Arizona-México and Texas-México border regions where demographic trends for immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S. have shifted dramatically. The demographic change and volume of immigrants seeking shelter in the U.S. presents new challenges for the forensic practitioners entrusted with the identification of individuals who lose their lives during the final segment of their journey. Within this Border context, the present study investigates how genetic variation inferred from forensically significant microsatellites can provide valuable information on regions of origin for unidentified remains on the group level. To explore how we can mobilize these genetic data to inform identification strategies, we conduct a comparative genetic analysis of identified and unidentified immigrant cases from the Arizona- and Texas-México contexts, as well as 27 other Latin American groups. Allele frequencies were utilized to calculate FST, and relationships were visually depicted in a multidimensional scaling plot. A Spearman correlation coefficient analysis assessed the strength and significance of population relationships and an agglomerative clustering analysis assessed population clusters. Results indicate that Arizona-México immigrants have the strongest relationship (\u3e80%) with groups from El Salvador, Guatemala, México, and an indigenous group from Southern México. Texas-México immigrants have the strongest relationships (\u3e80%) with groups from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These findings agree with, and are discussed in comparison to, previously reported demographic trends, population genetics research, and population history analyses. We emphasize the utility and necessity of coupling genetic variation research with a nuanced anthropological perspective for identification processes in the U.S-México border context

Uncovering war crimes: Hidden graves of the Falstad forest

This paper presents and discusses historical and archaeological data regarding war crimes committed by Nazi occupants during Second World War in the vicinity of the SS Prison Camp Falstad in Central Norway, and the issue of still unknown graves of executed prisoners in the Falstad Forest. Specialists from several Norwegian and foreign institutions are at present developing a set of advanced methods to be deployed during surveys of the Forest in search of hidden graves

Slaughtered like animals. Revealing the atrocities committed by the Nazis on captives at Treblinka I by skeletal trauma analysis

Abstract The infamous Treblinka camp was one of numerous extermination camps throughout Poland, where Germans carried out mass killings of Jews. There were two camps in Treblinka, AL Treblinka I, a forced labor camp, and KL Treblinka II, the site of the extermination camp. Treblinka I held captives of various origins and ethnic backgrounds who were serving their sentences by working in a pre-existing gravel pit. Many of those prisoners perished in the camp, and it was believed that the principal causes of their death were attributed to the horrific sanitary conditions in the camp as well as the strenuous hard work of daily life. In 2019, archaeologists uncovered a clandestine mass burial pit that contained commingled human skeleton remains at the Execution Site of the former Treblinka I camp. It was estimated that there were a minimum of forty-nine people in the pit. Within months, an anthropologist performed biological profile assessments and detailed trauma analysis on the recovered skeletal parts. The main goal was to study perimortem trauma patterns to infer the cause and manner of death of the victims. We hypothesized that the victims did not die solely because of the camps’ conditions but were brutally slaughtered by the camp guards. Our results were later compared with the survivors’ written testimonies. As a result of our research, we were able to show that the Treblinka I captives’ death was extremely brutal and that the killing methods were varied. This led us to conclude that multiple assailants were involved in the killing spree. All of our results were consistent with the written witness testimonies, which concurs with our skeletal material analysis that proves the atrocities committed by the Nazis on their civilian prisoners during the war took place

Perpetrators from Treblinka: interdisciplinary investigations of seven single graves with “Trawniki Men”

Abstract At the Treblinka extermination and forced labor camp only a few SS soldiers and around a hundred watchmen kept guard over thousands of prisoners. Despite their lower rank in the Nazi hierarchy than SS soldiers, watchmen were vital to implementing “Operation Reinhard” in the field. Prisoners in Nazi camps were terrified by their brutality and ruthlessness. The guards were intermediaries between the camp’s inmates and the commanding crew, so in cases of a prisoners’ riot, they were the first target. The historical records mention several incidents where the watchmen died at the hands of the captives. However, little is known regarding how the dead bodies of the guards were treated nor what the funeral customs looked like in the camps. In 2019, a row of individual burials was discovered at the former Treblinka extermination and forced labor camp. Seven of those graves were explored to identify the people buried in such an unusual manner and to find out what had caused their deaths. A thorough multidisciplinary study, combining the forensic disciplines of archaeology, anthropology, medicine, and genetics provided the answer. Considering archaeological findings, it can be deduced that the graves belong to the Treblinka guards. The analysis conducted by an anthropologist indicates that the assessed biological profile aligns with the antemortem data of the Treblinka watchmen. Moreover, a study examining perimortem trauma has unveiled that out of the seven men studied, at least two met a violent demise. These findings are crucial in narrowing down the identification process. The results of our study contribute to a general understanding of the funerary customs prevalent in concentration camps worldwide. Prior to this work, there had never been any analysis or publication of the characteristics of watchmen graves at Nazi camps, making our results unique

Society of Thoracic Surgeons risk score and EuroSCORE-2 appropriately assess 30-day postoperative mortality in the STICH trial and a contemporary cohort of patients with left ventricular dysfunction undergoing surgical revascularization

Background: The STICH trial (Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure) demonstrated a survival benefit of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular dysfunction. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) risk score and the EuroSCORE-2 (ES2) are used for risk assessment in cardiac surgery, with little information available about their accuracy in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. We assessed the ability of the STS score and ES2 to evaluate 30-day postoperative mortality risk in STICH and a contemporary cohort (CC) of patients with a left ventricle ejection fraction ≤35% undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting outside of a trial setting. Methods and Results: The STS and ES2 scores were calculated for 814 STICH patients and 1246 consecutive patients in a CC. There were marked variations in 30-day postoperative mortality risk from 1 patient to another. The STS scores consistently calculated lower risk scores than ES2 (1.5 versus 2.9 for the CC and 0.9 versus 2.4 for the STICH cohort), and underestimated postoperative mortality risk. The STS and ES2 scores had moderately good C statistics: CC (0.727, 95% CI: 0.650–0.803 for STS, and 0.707, 95% CI: 0.620–0.795 for ES2); STICH (0.744, 95% CI: 0.677–0.812, for STS and 0.736, 95% CI: 0.665–0.808 for ES2). Despite the CC patients having higher STS and ES2 scores than STICH patients, mortality (3.5%) was lower than that of STICH (4.8%), suggesting a possible decrease in postoperative mortality over the past decade. Conclusions: The 30-day postoperative mortality risk of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with left ventricular dysfunction varies markedly. Both the STS and ES2 score are effective in evaluating risk, although the STS score tend to underestimate risk

Restoring Regulatory T Cells in Type 1 Diabetes

Genetic and cellular studies of type 1 diabetes in patients and in the nonobese diabetic mouse model of type 1 diabetes point to an imbalance between effector T cells and regulatory T cells (Tregs) as a driver of the disease. The imbalance may arise as a consequence of genetically encoded defects in thymic deletion of islet antigen-specific T cells, induction of islet antigen-specific thymic Tregs, unfavorable tissue environment for peripheral Treg induction, and failure of islet antigen-specific Tregs to survive in the inflamed islets secondary to insufficient IL-2 signals. These understandings are the foundation for rationalized design of new therapeutic interventions to restore the balance by selectively targeting effector T cells and boosting Tregs

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes