The Biological Anthropology of Living Human Populations: World Histories, National Styles, and International Networks

We introduce a special issue of Current Anthropology developed from a Wenner-Gren symposium held in Teresópolis, Brazil, in 2010 that was about the past, present, and future of biological anthropology. Our goal was to understand from a comparative international perspective the contexts of genesis and development of physical/biological anthropology around the world. While biological anthropology today can encompass paleoanthropology, primatology, and skeletal biology, our symposium focused on the field\u27s engagement with living human populations. Bringing together scholars in the history of science, science studies, and anthropology, the participants examined the discipline\u27s past in different contexts but also reflected on its contemporary and future conditions. Our contributors explore national histories, collections, and scientific field practice with the goal of developing a broader understanding of the discipline\u27s history. Our work tracks a global, uneven transition from a typological and essentialist physical anthropology, predominating until the first decades of the twentieth century, to a biological anthropology informed by postsynthesis evolutionism and the rise of molecular biology, a shift that was labeled new physical anthropology. We place biological anthropology in a broad historical context and suggest how the histories we document can inform its future

Functional compartmentalization of Rad9 and Hus1 reveals diverse assembly of the 9-1-1 complex components during the DNA damage response in Leishmania

The Rad9-Rad1-Hus1 (9-1-1) complex is a key component in the coordination of DNA damage sensing, cell cycle progression and DNA repair pathways in eukaryotic cells. This PCNA-related trimer is loaded onto RPA-coated single stranded DNA and interacts with ATR kinase to mediate effective checkpoint signaling to halt the cell cycle and to promote DNA repair. Beyond these core activities, mounting evidence suggests that a broader range of functions can be provided by 9-1-1 structural diversification. The protozoan parasite Leishmania is an early-branching eukaryote with a remarkably plastic genome, which hints at peculiar genome maintenance mechanisms. Here, we investigated the existence of homologs of the 9-1-1 complex subunits in L. major and found that LmRad9 and LmRad1 associate with chromatin in response to replication stress and form a complex in vivo with LmHus1. Similar to LmHus1, LmRad9 participates in telomere homeostasis and in the response to both replication stress and double strand breaks. However, LmRad9 and LmHus1-deficient cells present markedly opposite phenotypes, which suggest their functional compartmentalization. We show that some of the cellular pool of LmRad9 forms an alternative complex and that some of LmHus1 exists as a monomer. We propose that the diverse assembly of the Leishmania 9-1-1 subunits mediates functional compartmentalization, which has a direct impact on the response to genotoxic stress

Atomistic Simulation of Intrinsic Defects and Trivalent and Tetravalent Ion Doping in Hydroxyapatite

Atomistic simulation techniques have been employed in order to investigate key issues related to intrinsic defects and a variety of dopants from trivalent and tetravalent ions. The most favorable intrinsic defect is determined to be a scheme involving calcium and hydroxyl vacancies. It is found that trivalent ions have an energetic preference for the Ca site, while tetravalent ions can enter P sites. Charge compensation is predicted to occur basically via three schemes. In general, the charge compensation via the formation of calcium vacancies is more favorable. Trivalent dopant ions are more stable than tetravalent dopants

Influence of adaptability of Serious Games on learning outcomes and the application of knowledge and skills in professional training

Serious Games have been used in professional training to increase employee engagement and improve the results of training initiatives in this context. This work intends to investigate the influence of game elements, in adaptable Serious Games, according to the users\u27 interactions, in the increase of engagement in the game itself and, as the main objective, in the learning outcomes and the transfer of the acquired knowledge and practised skills to activities in the daily work. Using the Design Science Research methodology, this study is intended to develop a framework for the development and evaluation of Serious Games to improve the user experience, the learning outcomes, the transfer of knowledge to work situations, and the application of skills practised in the game in real professional scenarios

Integrating business, social, and environmental goals in open innovation through partner selection

Although collaborative networks (CN) are widespread in academia and have come to be even more used in corporations all over the world, they still face several challenges on behalf of the new product development (NPD) context, especially in regard to the selection of the CN’s right partner. This becomes even more evident when it comes to promoting sustainable development goals within a CN’s activities, by selecting the right partners with a wide consensus from a CN’s management board, avoiding, therefore, the subjectivity around managers’ perception of a CN’s partner selection. Therefore, this work attempts to answer this problem, by presenting a soft-com-puting-based framework, to support the managers’ board on partner search and selection. The method presented here is further assessed by using a case study, based on the development of a green product, where, according to the obtained results, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach is extremely effective for partner selection, by assessing and prioritizing each candidate involved. The most suitable candidate that fulfills the CN’s requirements is then selected to be integrated as a future partner.publishersversionpublishe

Perspectives on player performance during FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: a brief report

Changing the date of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 may represent a factor to consider for the expected performance of participating players. This was due to fixture congestion at the start of the season and expected weather conditions during the competition. Thus, the main purpose of this brief report was to critically analyze the potential impact of changing the competition date and weather conditions on players’ performance. In addition, a brief description about the performance during the World Cup is also provided. For the research, the Web of Science, PubMed and SPORTDiscus databases were accessed using the primary keywords FIFA World Cup and World Soccer Cup associated with the secondary keywords match running performance, fixture congestion, fatigue and weather conditions. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 52 articles were considered for analysis. The results seem to indicate that although changes were expected due to the modifications made (i.e., the competition date and scheduling congestion), the performance of the players seems not to have been affected in terms of the analyzed indicators. Furthermore, it seems possible to identify some patterns in the behavior of the teams that reached the most advanced stages of the competition.This research was founded by the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences of the Douro, by national funds (FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) under the project UIBD/DTP/04045/2020 and by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP— Grant number: 2021/03601-1).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bio-guided fractionation of extracts of Geranium robertianum L.: Relationship between phenolic profile and biological activity

Geranium robertianum L. is used in folk medicine and herbalism practice for the treatment of a variety of ailments. Recently, we studied the bioactivity of several aqueous and organic extracts of this plant. In this work, the more active extracts were fractionated and the fractions evaluated for their antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity against several human tumor cell lines and non-tumor porcine liver primary cells. Some of the fractions from the acetone extract consistently displayed low EC 50 and GI 50 values and presented the higher contents of total phenolic compounds in comparison to other fractions. The phenolic compounds profile of the fractions was determined. The bio-guided fractionation of the extracts resulted in several fractions with improved bioactivity relative to the corresponding extracts. Their lower compositional complexity allowed the identification of more than two dozen compounds, to the best of our knowledge, so far not reported in G. robertianum.This work was supported by European Investment Funds by FEDER/COMPETE/POCI- Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme, under Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958 and National Funds by FCT − Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the projects UID/AGR/04033, UID/AGR/00690/2013 (CIMO) and UID/QUI/00616/2013 (CQ-VR). V.C. Graça, M.I. Dias and L. Barros thank FCT for SFRH/BD/52542/2014, SFRH/BD/84485/2012, and SFRH/BPD/107855/2015 grants, respectively.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Agreement Between the Douleur Neuropathique in 4 Questions and Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms and Signs Questionnaires to Classify Neuropathic Pain Among Patients with Leprosy.

Neuropathic pain (NP) often occurs during the course of leprosy, and screening tools to differentiate NP from non-NP are often used. However, their performance varies in different settings. The most frequently used scales are the Douleur Neuropathique in 4 questions (DN4) and the Leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs (LANSS) questionnaires. Thus, we conducted a study to evaluate the agreement between DN4 and LANSS questionnaires to classify NP in 195 leprosy patients attending two reference centers in Sergipe, Brazil. The DN4 and LANSS classified 166 and 110 patients, respectively, as having NP. One hundred and seven (54.8%) were classified as NP by both questionnaires; 59 (30.2%) solely by the DN4 questionnaire and three (1.5%) solely by the LANSS. The agreement of the questionnaires was 66.2% (weak agreement, Kappa = 0.30). Although both questionnaires identified a high proportion of NP, the development of more robust instruments is necessary to ensure the accuracy of diagnosis of leprosy patients classified as having NP

Estudos epidemiológicos entre grupos indígenas de Rondônia: IV. Inquérito sorológico para rotavírus entre os Suruí e Karitiána

The authors present the results of a sero-epidemiological survey for rotavirus antibodies conducted among the Suruí and Kantiána, two amerindian groups of Rondônia, Brazilian Amazonia. The results indicate high percentages of seropositivity for both groups (67.8% among the Surui and 77.4% among the Kantiana using ELISA and 45.5% for the Suruí and 56.7% for the Karitiána using indirect immunofluorescence). Chi square tests indicated no statistically significant association between group and seropositivity. The results are discussed in the light of other studies conducted among Brazilian amerindian groups.São apresentados os dados de um inquérito soro epidemiológico para anticorpos anti-rotavírus conduzido entre os Suruí e Karitiána, dois grupos indígenas de Rondônia, Brasil. Os resultados indicam que as porcentagens de soropositividade são elevadas (67,8% para os Suruí e 77,4% para os Karitiána, através da técnica ELISA, e 45,5% para os Suruí e 56,7% para os Karitiána, através de imunofluorescência indireta). Testes de qui-quadrado indicam não haver associação estatisticamente significante entre grupo e positividade sorológica. São discutidos os resultados à luz de outros estudos conduzidos com grupos indígenas brasileiros

Saúde e povos indígenas

Traz contribuições que exploram aspectos biológicos, culturais e sociais da dinâmica de saúde e de doença de tais povos a partir de uma perspectiva bioantropológica. Com base em estudos de casos sobre sociedades indígenas experimentando acelerados processos de mudanças socioeconômico-culturais, os diversos autores proporcionam um panorama atualizado acerca da questão - saúde e doença na pré-história, sistema de crenças e práticas médicas, mudanças nos perfis de saúde -, ficando evidente a pluralidade teórico-metodológica que atualmente caracteriza as pesquisas