Chronic maxillary sinusitis in palaeopathology: A review of methods

ObjectiveThis study reviews the palaeopathological literature discussing maxillary sinusitis to examine current trends and issues within the study of this condition, and to make recommendations for future research in this area.MaterialsSeventy-five studies were identified through a literature search of digital and physical sources.MethodsInformation regarding study metadata, the populations investigated, sinusitis diagnostic criteria, and sinusitis prevalence was examined.ResultsPopulations from the UK and Europe were the most studied, reflecting both palaeopathology’s systemic colonialism and academic legacies. Most studies used diagnostic criteria published in the mid‐1990s, with some subsequent studies modifying these criteria.ConclusionsThe diagnostic criteria from 1995 are widely used but do not include all possible bone changes seen within sinusitis. There is also a need for researchers to engage in issues of data reductionism when using descriptive categories for archaeological sites and populations.SignificanceThis paper provides considerations as to how the 1995 diagnostic criteria may be revised by future researchers and synthesises much of the published sinusitis prevalence data to assist researchers interested in the palaeopathology of respiratory disease.LimitationsMore general osteological research, which includes palaeopathological information, was likely missed from this review due to the choice of key terms and languages used in the literature search.Suggestions for Further ResearchAdditional research into sinusitis in archaeological populations outside of Western Europe is required. Further work examining the ability to compare pathological data from macroscopic observation and medical imaging would be advantageous to palaeopathology as a whole

A Practical Catalytic Reductive Amination of Carboxylic Acids

We report reductive alkylation reactions of amines using carboxylic acids as nominal electrophiles. The two-step reaction exploits the dual reactivity of phenylsilane and involves a silane-mediated amidation followed by a Zn(OAc)2-catalyzed amide reduction. The reaction is applicable to a wide range of amines and carboxylic acids and has been demonstrated on a large scale (305 mmol of amine). The rate differential between the reduction of tertiary and secondary amide intermediates is exemplified in a convergent synthesis of the antiretroviral medicine maraviroc. Mechanistic studies demonstrate that a residual 0.5 equivalents of carboxylic acid from the amidation step is responsible for the generation of silane reductants with augmented reactivity, which allow secondary amides, previously unreactive in zinc/phenylsilane systems, to be reduced

Avoiding methane emission rate underestimates when using the divergence method

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and a primary target for mitigating climate change in the short-term future due to its relatively short atmospheric lifetime and greater ability to trap heat in Earth's atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide. Top-down observations of atmospheric methane are possible via drone and aircraft surveys as well as satellites such as the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Recent work has begun to apply the divergence method to produce regional methane emission rate estimates. Here we show that when the divergence method is applied to spatially incomplete observations of methane, it can result in negatively biased time-averaged regional emission rates. We show that this effect can be counteracted by adopting a procedure in which daily advective fluxes of methane are time-averaged before the divergence method is applied. Using such a procedure with TROPOMI methane observations, we calculate yearly Permian emission rates of 3.1, 2.4 and 2.7 million tonnes per year for the years 2019 through 2021. We also show that highly-resolved plumes of methane can have negatively biased estimated emission rates by the divergence method due to the presence of turbulent diffusion in the plume, but this is unlikely to affect regional methane emission budgets constructed from TROPOMI observations of methane. The results from this work are expected to provide useful guidance for future implementations of the divergence method for emission rate estimation from satellite data -- be it for methane or other gaseous species in the atmosphere.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Environmental Research Letter

Hybrid Online-Offline Digital Collections

Online digital repositories are rapidly becoming the norm to store various different forms of content, including academic documents and heritage collections. There are many advantages to online systems, including general accessibility and the increasing use of Web browsers as a platform. However, it can argued that, for the preservation of heritage, offline systems may offer other advantages, such as replication, simplicity and cost-effectiveness. This paper describes an attempt to exploit advantages of both approaches in the form of a combined online-offline digital repository, where some content is online on a Web server and other content is offline on a DVD-ROM. This new approach to designing systems for preservation and access is especially useful in areas with limited Internet bandwidth, such as in most African countries. Experimental results confirm that this system is effective and efficient

A Comparison of Nonverbal and Paraverbal Behaviors in Simulated and Virtual Patient Encounters

The present study assessed whether trainees display similar nonverbal and paraverbal behaviors when interacting with a simulated (SP) and virtual patient (VP). Sixty second slices of time following four interactions were rated for the presence and frequency of three nonverbal and paraverbal behaviors. Results revealed that students exhibited fewer behaviors in the VP interaction, possibly due to differences social inhibition or fidelity between the two formats

The fifth adaptor protein complex.

Adaptor protein (AP) complexes sort cargo into vesicles for transport from one membrane compartment of the cell to another. Four distinct AP complexes have been identified, which are present in most eukaryotes. We report the existence of a fifth AP complex, AP-5. Tagged AP-5 localises to a late endosomal compartment in HeLa cells. AP-5 does not associate with clathrin and is insensitive to brefeldin A. Knocking down AP-5 subunits interferes with the trafficking of the cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor and causes the cell to form swollen endosomal structures with emanating tubules. AP-5 subunits can be found in all five eukaryotic supergroups, but they have been co-ordinately lost in many organisms. Concatenated phylogenetic analysis provides robust resolution, for the first time, into the evolutionary order of emergence of the adaptor subunit families, showing AP-3 as the basal complex, followed by AP-5, AP-4, and AP-1 and AP-2. Thus, AP-5 is an evolutionarily ancient complex, which is involved in endosomal sorting, and which has links with hereditary spastic paraplegia

The Role of Cargo Proteins in GGA Recruitment

Coat proteins are recruited onto membranes to form vesicles that transport cargo from one compartment to another, but the extent to which the cargo helps to recruit the coat proteins is still unclear. Here we have examined the role of cargo in the recruitment of Golgi-localized, γ-ear-containing, ADP ribosylation factor (ARF)-binding proteins (GGAs) onto membranes in HeLa cells. Moderate overexpression of CD8 chimeras with cytoplasmic tails containing DXXLL-sorting signals, which bind to GGAs, increased the localization of all three GGAs to perinuclear membranes, as observed by immunofluorescence. GGA2 was also expressed at approximately twofold higher levels in these cells because it was degraded more slowly. However, this difference only partially accounted for the increase in membrane localization because there was a approximately fivefold increase in GGA2 associated with crude membranes and a ∼12-fold increase in GGA2 associated with clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs) in cells expressing CD8-DXXLL chimeras. The effect of cargo proteins on GGA recruitment was reconstituted in vitro using permeabilized control and CD8-DXXLL-expressing cells incubated with cytosol containing recombinant GGA2 constructs. Together, these results demonstrate that cargo proteins contribute to the recruitment of GGAs onto membranes and to the formation of GGA-positive CCVs

Responses of intraspecific metabolic scaling to temperature and activity differ between water- and air-breathing ectothermic vertebrates.

Metabolism underpins all life-sustaining processes and varies profoundly with body size, temperature and locomotor activity. A current theory explains some of the size-dependence of metabolic rate (its mass exponent, b) through changes in metabolic level (L). We propose two predictive advances that: (a) combine the above theory with the evolved avoidance of oxygen limitation in water-breathers experiencing warming, and (b) quantify the overall magnitude of combined temperatures and degrees of locomotion on metabolic scaling across air- and water-breathers. We use intraspecific metabolic scaling responses to temperature (523 regressions) and activity (281 regressions) in diverse ectothermic vertebrates (fish, reptiles and amphibians) to show that b decreases with temperature-increased L in water-breathers, supporting surface area-related avoidance of oxygen limitation, whereas b increases with activity-increased L in air-breathers, following volume-related influences. This new theoretical integration quantitatively incorporates different influences (warming, locomotion) and respiration modes (aquatic, terrestrial) on animal energetics

Physiological mechanisms of the impact of heat during pregnancy and the clinical implications: review of the evidence from an expert group meeting

Many populations experience high seasonal temperatures. Pregnant women are considered vulnerable to extreme heat because ambient heat exposure has been linked to pregnancy complications including preterm birth and low birthweight. The physiological mechanisms that underpin these associations are poorly understood. We reviewed the existing research evidence to clarify the mechanisms that lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes in order to inform public health actions. A multi-disciplinary expert group met to review the existing evidence base and formulate a consensus regarding the physiological mechanisms that mediate the efect of high ambient temperature on pregnancy. A literature search was conducted in advance of the meeting to identify existing hypotheses and develop a series of questions and themes for discussion. Numerous hypotheses have been generated based on animal models and limited observational studies. There is growing evidence that pregnant women are able to appropriately thermoregulate; however, when exposed to extreme heat, there are a number of processes that may occur which could harm the mother or fetus including a reduction in placental blood fow, dehydration, and an infammatory response that may trigger preterm birth. There is a lack of substantial evidence regarding the processes that cause heat exposure to harm pregnant women. Research is urgently needed to identify what causes the adverse outcomes in pregnancy related to high ambient temperatures so that the impact of climate change on pregnant women can be mitigated