Identification of fossil juniper seeds from Rancho La Brea (California, USA): drought and extirpation in the Late Pleistocene.

Juniperus spp. are keystone shrubs in western North America and important climatic indicators in paleo-records. However, a lack of taxonomic resolution among fossil species limits our ability to track past environmental changes.

An investigation into General Practitioners' experience with Long Covid.

Background: Long Covid (LC) is the continuation or development of new symptoms after initial COVID-19 infection. Little is known about General Practitioners' (GP) experience of managing patients with LC.

Aims: The aim of this study is to establish GP experiences with LC.

Multi-Omic, Histopathologic, and Clinicopathologic Effects of Once-Weekly Oral Rapamycin in a Naturally Occurring Feline Model of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Pilot Study.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) remains the single most common cardiomyopathy in cats, with a staggering prevalence as high as 15%. To date, little to no direct therapeutical intervention for HCM exists for veterinary patients. A previous study aimed to evaluate the effects of delayed-release (DR) rapamycin dosing in a client-owned population of subclinical, non-obstructive, HCM-affected cats and reported that the drug was well tolerated and resulted in beneficial LV remodeling.

Pre-Younger Dryas megafaunal extirpation at Rancho La Brea linked to fire-driven state shift.

The cause, or causes, of the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions have been difficult to establish, in part because poor spatiotemporal resolution in the fossil record hinders alignment of species disappearances with archeological and environmental data. We obtained 172 new radiocarbon dates on megafauna from Rancho La Brea in California spanning 15.6 to 10.

Delayed-release rapamycin halts progression of left ventricular hypertrophy in subclinical feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: results of the RAPACAT trial.

Objective: Feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) remains a disease with little therapeutic advancement. Rapamycin modulates the mTOR pathway, preventing and reversing cardiac hypertrophy in rodent disease models. Its use in human renal allograft patients is associated with reduced cardiac wall thickness.

An investigation into exercise prescription post-COVID-19 pandemic amongst Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors in an acute hospital setting.

Background: Being sedentary is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection, suggesting the important role physical activity (PA) has as a modifiable risk factor for COVID-19 outcome.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate NCHD's exercise prescribing practices and establish how these related to their knowledge, attitudes, and demographics and if their practices had changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Methods: An online survey was emailed to NCHDs working in city centre teaching hospitals in southern Ireland.

Subchondral defects resembling osteochondrosis dissecans in joint surfaces of the extinct saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis and dire wolf Aenocyon dirus.

Skeletal disease may hamper the behavior of large predators both living and extinct. We investigated the prevalence of osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD), a developmental bone disease affecting the joints, in two Ice Age predators: the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis and dire wolf Aenocyon dirus. As published cases in modern Felidae and wild Canidae are rare, we predicted that subchondral defects resembling OCD would be rare in the extinct predators.

Breathlessness and Respiratory Disability After Kidney Transplantation.

Background: Dyspnea is a common symptom in patients with end-stage kidney disease being treated with dialysis. This study aimed to ascertain the level of respiratory disability in patients after kidney transplantation through assessing a cohort of kidney allograft recipients for respiratory compromise and thereby identifying a potential target for therapeutic intervention.

Methods: Kidney transplant recipients who were under active observation in a single tertiary referral center were invited to take part in this prevalence study at the time of clinic follow-up.

Reply to Van Valkenburgh et al.

DeSantis et al. respond to the concerns raised by Van Valkenburgh et al. on their original study.

Causes and Consequences of Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions as Revealed from Rancho La Brea Mammals.

The fossils preserved in the Rancho La Brea "tar" seeps in southern California span the past ∼50,000 years and provide a rare opportunity to assess the ecology of predators (e.g., the American lion, sabertooth cats, cougars, dire wolves, gray wolves, and coyotes), including clarifying the causes and consequences of the terminal Pleistocene extinction event.

Food-dependent exercise-induced reactions: lessons from a 15-year retrospective study.

Background: Food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis (FDEIA) is a life-threatening disorder in which the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis occur if physical exertion occurs within a few hours of exposure to a food.

Aims: The aim of this study was to characterise patients diagnosed with FDEIA and related disorders.

Methods: A retrospective review of electronic clinical data from 2001 to 2016 was carried out.

Dental caries in the fossil record: a window to the evolution of dietary plasticity in an extinct bear.

During the late Pleistocene of North America (≈36,000 to 10,000 years ago), saber-toothed cats, American lions, dire wolves, and coyotes competed for prey resources at Rancho La Brea (RLB). Despite the fact that the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) was the largest land carnivoran present in the fauna, there is no evidence that it competed with these other carnivores for prey at the site. Here, for the first time, we report carious lesions preserved in specimens of A.

Attempted DNA extraction from a Rancho La Brea Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi): prospects for ancient DNA from asphalt deposits.

Fossil-bearing asphalt deposits are an understudied and potentially significant source of ancient DNA. Previous attempts to extract DNA from skeletons preserved at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, have proven unsuccessful, but it is unclear whether this is due to a lack of endogenous DNA, or if the problem is caused by asphalt-mediated inhibition. In an attempt to test these hypotheses, a recently recovered Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) skeleton with an unusual pattern of asphalt impregnation was studied.

The clavicles of Smilodon fatalis and Panthera atrox (Mammalia: Felidae) from Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, California.

The Rancho La Brea collections at the George C. Page Museum in Los Angeles, California, contain the largest single inventory of Smilodon fatalis remains representing virtually every bone in the skeleton. Eighteen clavicles of two distinctive shapes have been recovered from historical and recent excavations at Rancho La Brea.