Bioarchaeology of Life and Death in Tuscany, Italy, AD 900–1900

Human remains from archaeological contexts provide a fund of information for addressing questions and hypotheses about what life was like in the past. These remains are especially important because they represent the individual and their life experiences from early childhood through adulthood, and especially those experiences relating to health and lifestyle. This paper presents an overview of health indicators documented in an ongoing bioarchaeological project involving the study of remains of people interred at the church of San Pietro a Pozzeveri, located near the village of Badia Pozzeveri in the province of Tuscany, northern Italy. Founded in the 11th century A.D., the church was in continuous existence until the mid-20th century. The church was part of a monastery during the 12th through 14th centuries, and was located on the Via Francigena, a strategic trade and pilgrimage route connecting Canterbury, England, with Rome. Archaeological excavations have produced numerous skeletons from the medieval, Renaissance, and modern (17th to 19th centuries) periods. Key events that impacted the people living in this region included the Black Death, which swept through Europe in the medieval period, and the local record of the global cholera epidemic in the mid-19th century. Study of skeletal and dental pathology (osteoperiostitis, osteoarthritis, dental caries), trauma, and other evidence of living conditions reveals the hardships of life in this setting. The record of infection and poor oral health speaks to both the poor circumstances of diet, including a focus on dietary carbohydrates, and poor health generally in the region in particular and Europe in general during this thousand-year period of history

Piezoelectric osteotomy in hand surgery: first experiences with a new technique

BACKGROUND: In hand and spinal surgery nerve lesions are feared complications with the use of standard oscillating saws. Oral surgeons have started using a newly developed ultrasound bone scalpel when performing precise osteotomies. By using a frequency of 25–29 kHz only mineralized tissue is cut, sparing the soft tissue. This reduces the risk of nerve lesions. As there is a lack of experience with this technique in the field of orthopaedic bone surgery, we performed the first ultrasound osteotomy in hand surgery. METHOD: While performing a correctional osteotomy of the 5th metacarpal bone we used the Piezosurgery(® )Device from Mectron [Italy] instead of the usual oscillating saw. We will report on our experience with one case, with a follow up time of one year. RESULTS: The cut was highly precise and there were no vibrations of the bone. The time needed for the operation was slightly longer than the time needed while using the usual saw. Bone healing was good and at no point were there any neurovascular disturbances. CONCLUSION: The Piezosurgery(® )Device is useful for small long bone osteotomies. Using the fine tip enables curved cutting and provides an opportunity for new osteotomy techniques. As the device selectively cuts bone we feel that this device has great potential in the field of hand- and spinal surgery

Circulating Angiogenic Factors Associated with Response and Survival in Patients with Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease: Results from Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network 0302 and 0802

AbstractCirculating angiogenic factors (AF) reflect tissue healing capacity, although some AF can also contribute to inflammation and are indicative of endothelial dysfunction. The AF milieu in acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) has not been broadly characterized. We hypothesized that patients with abundant AF involved in repair/regeneration versus those mediating damage/inflammation would have improved outcomes. Circulating AF known predominantly for repair/regeneration (epidermal growth factor [EGF], fibroblast growth factor-1 and -2, heparin binding–EGF–like growth factor, and vascular endothelial growth factor-A [VEGF-A], -C, and -D) and for damage/inflammation (angiopoietin-2, endothelin-1, soluble endoglin [sEng], follistatin [FS], leptin, and placental growth factor [PlGF]) were measured in a discovery set of hematopoietic cell recipients with grade III and IV aGVHD and compared with controls, then validated in 2 aGVHD cohorts enrolled in Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) trials 0302 (n = 105, serum) and 0802 (n = 158, plasma) versus controls without aGVHD (n = 53, serum). Levels of EGF and VEGF-A were lower than in controls at the onset of aGVHD in both trials and higher with complete response to first-line aGVHD therapy in CTN 0802. FS and PlGF were elevated in aGVHD measured in either serum or plasma. At day 28 after initial aGVHD therapy, elevated FS was an independent negative prognostic factor for survival in both cohorts (hazard ratio, 9.3 in CTN 0302; 2.8 in CTN 0802). These data suggest that circulating AF are associated with clinical outcomes after aGVHD and, thus, may contribute to both pathogenesis and recovery

PRESENCE OF Listeria monocytogenes IN HEALTHY CATTLE AT SLAUGHTERING: FIRST RESULTS

Listeria monocytogenes is an ubiquitous pathogen occasionally present in the intestinal tract of various animal species. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in faeces of healthy cattle at slaughtering. Listeria spp. was isolated in 18 out of 220 (8.2%) faecal samples, and Listeria monocytogenes was isolated in 3 faecal samples (1.4%). From the 220 faecal samples were also isolated 9 strains of L. grayi, 4 strains of L. innocua and 2 strains of L. ivanovii. Although limited, our results show that animal faeces can represent a source of L. monocytogenes contamination of carcasses in abattoirs and can be a potential hazard to human health

New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens

Fossil evidence points to an African origin of Homo sapiens from a group called either H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis. However, the exact place and time of emergence of H. sapiens remain obscure because the fossil record is scarce and the chronological age of many key specimens remains uncertain. In particular, it is unclear whether the present day ‘modern’ morphology rapidly emerged approximately 200 thousand years ago (ka) among earlier representatives of H. sapiens1 or evolved gradually over the last 400 thousand years2. Here we report newly discovered human fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and interpret the affinities of the hominins from this site with other archaic and recent human groups. We identified a mosaic of features including facial, mandibular and dental morphology that aligns the Jebel Irhoud material with early or recent anatomically modern humans and more primitive neurocranial and endocranial morphology. In combination with an age of 315?±?34 thousand years (as determined by thermoluminescence dating)3, this evidence makes Jebel Irhoud the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site that documents early stages of the H. sapiens clade in which key features of modern morphology were established. Furthermore, it shows that the evolutionary processes behind the emergence of H. sapiens involved the whole African continent