Parity, dental caries and implications for maternal depletion syndrome in northern Nigerian Hausa women.

Background: Female reproductive history, especially high parity, affects general health and may impact negatively on oral health. While parity has been positively linked to tooth loss, the specific association between parity and caries has not been adequately investigated.

Aim: To determine the association between parity and caries in a population of higher parity women.

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe.

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra-West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations.

Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia.

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia.

A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia.

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom's northern provinces.

Three-dimensional geometric morphometric studies of modern human occipital variation.

Objectives: To investigate three-dimensional morphological variation of the occipital bone between sexes and among populations, to determine how ancestry, sex and size account for occipital shape variation and to describe the exact forms by which the differences are expressed.

Methods: CT data for 214 modern crania of Asian, African and European ancestry were compared using 3D geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics, including principal component analysis, Hotelling's T2 test, multivariate regression, ANOVA, and MANCOVA.

Results: Sex differences in average occipital morphology are only observed in Europeans, with males exhibiting a pronounced inion.

Association between parity and tooth loss among northern Nigerian Hausa women.

Background: Female reproduction is associated with physiological, metabolic, and nutritional demands that can negatively affect health and are possibly cumulative when parity is high. While it is probable that maternal oral health is similarly affected, available evidence is based on fairly low parity populations and likely confounders affecting oral health status were not considered.

Aim: To determine the relationship between parity and tooth loss in a population with many high parity women.

Does nutrition have an effect on the timing of tooth formation?

Background: The effect of nutritional status on the timing of permanent tooth formation is not well understood, despite clear evidence that systemic stresses result in enamel defects during tooth formation.

Aim: This study investigated the effect of nutritional status (measured as BMI, height, weight, mid-upper arm circumference, and head circumference) on permanent tooth formation.

Method: This was a prospective cross-sectional study involving 642 (270 males, 372 females) healthy Black South African participants aged 5-20 years.

Is parity a cause of tooth loss? Perceptions of northern Nigerian Hausa women.

Background: Reproduction affects the general health of women, especially when parity is high. The relationship between parity and oral health is not as clear, although it is a widespread customary belief that pregnancy results in tooth loss. Parity has been associated with tooth loss in some populations, but not in others.

First systematic assessment of dental growth and development in an archaic hominin (genus, ) from East Asia.

Several human dental traits typical of modern humans appear to be associated with the prolonged period of development that is a key human attribute. Understanding when, and in which early hominins, these dental traits first appeared is thus of strong interest. Using x-ray multiresolution synchrotron phase-contrast microtomography, we quantify dental growth and development in an archaic juvenile from the Xujiayao site in northern China dating to 161,000-224,000 years or 104,000-125,000 years before present.

The timing of permanent tooth development in a Black Southern African population using the Demirjian method.

Background: Many aspects of growth have been documented for Black Southern African children, yet their dental development has not been comprehensively investigated.

Aim: The present study was designed to provide information on age of attainment of dental development stages in Southern African children and to compare the findings with other populations.

Method: This was a community-based cross-sectional study of 642 children (270 males and 372 females).

Permanent tooth emergence: Timing and sequence in a sample of Black Southern African children.

Objectives: This study investigates mean age, sequence, and temporal trends of permanent tooth emergence in Black Southern African children and compares the findings with other population samples.

Materials And Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study involved 639 Black Southern African children between 5 and 20 years of age. Probit analysis was used to derive the mean age at emergence of the permanent teeth.

Characterization of the tissue crossing the supratrochlear aperture of the humerus using histochemical techniques.

Introduction: The supratrochlear aperture (STA) is the opening observed in the septum that separates the olecranon from the coronoid fossae. Numerous studies have shown that there is considerable variation in the occurrence of this feature within and among populations.

Materials And Methods: Cadavers (n = 43) were assessed for the presence of the STA by means of X-ray.

Three-dimensionally derived interlandmark distances for sex estimation in intact and fragmentary crania.

The skull is the element most frequently presented to forensic anthropologists for analysis yet weathering, corpse maiming, and scavenger activity often result in damage and fragmentation. This fragmentation results in a reduction in the number of traditional calliper derived measurements that can be obtained and subjected to discriminant based analyses for sex estimation. In this investigation, we employed three-dimensional geometric morphometric methods to derive novel interlandmark distance measures across six regions of the cranium including the basicranium, basipalate, zygoma, orbits and the cranium globally to create functions to discriminate sex with high efficacy, even in the event of fragmentation.

The WITS Atlas: A Black Southern African dental atlas for permanent tooth formation and emergence.

Unlabelled: Current dental maturity charts, such as the widely applied London atlas, do not take into consideration advanced tooth emergence and formation patterns observed in children of African ancestry. The result is inaccurate age estimation in Southern Africa, a region where there is great forensic and anthropological need for reliable age estimation.

Objectives: To develop a population-specific atlas of permanent tooth emergence and formation for age estimation of Black Southern Africans.

Accuracy of the Demirjian and Willems methods of age estimation in a Black Southern African population.

The accuracies of the original Demirjian, modified Demirjian and Willems dental age estimation methods were compared for a Black Southern African population to determine their usefulness for forensic and anthropological purposes. Data were collected using a community-based prospective study design. Panoramic radiographs of seven left mandibular teeth from 540 children aged 5-15.

The Demirjian versus the Willems method for dental age estimation in different populations: A meta-analysis of published studies.

Background: The accuracy of radiographic methods for dental age estimation is important for biological growth research and forensic applications. Accuracy of the two most commonly used systems (Demirjian and Willems) has been evaluated with conflicting results. This study investigates the accuracies of these methods for dental age estimation in different populations.

An anatomical and osteometric study of the femoral sulcus angle in adult Malawians.

Background: Femoral sulcus angle is particularly important in clinical evaluation of patellofemoral joint. Individuals show considerable differences in asymmetrical dimensions of the femur.

Objectives: To determine the size of femoral sulcus angles in adult black Malawians using the skeletal collection in the department of Anatomy, College of Medicine and assess their gender differences; to compare femoral sulcus angles of Malawians with other ethnic groups.

A radiographic investigation of the relationships between humeral cortical bone thickness, medullary canal width and the supratrochlear aperture (STA).

The supratrochlear aperture (STA) is a perforation of the septum between the olecranon and coronoid fossae of the humerus. Bones with STA are prone to supracondylar fractures and are thought to have narrower medullary canals. Our aim was to explore the relationship of the STA with medullary canal width and humeral size.

Third molar impaction and agenesis: influence on anterior crowding.

Background Third molar influence on anterior crowding is controversial, but they are assumed to play a major role in compromising dental arch space. Aim To evaluate the relationship among impaction, agenesis and crowding in black South African males. Subjects and method Mandibles and maxillae of 535 black South African males in the Raymond A.

Morphometric Characteristics of the Humerus and Ulna in Limbs Bearing the Supratrochlear Aperture (STA).

The supratrochlear aperture (STA) is a perforation of the septum found between the olecranon and coronoid fossae of the humerus. Its prevalence is population specific and varies by sex. There is no consensus on the etiology of this feature despite decades of investigation.

Evidence for long-term migration on the Balkan Peninsula using dental and cranial nonmetric data: Early interaction between corinth (Greece) and its colony at Apollonia (Albania).

This article seeks to identify "Greeks" and "non-Greeks" in "mixed" mortuary contexts in a Greek colony. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that Illyrian and Greek individuals lived and were buried together at the Corinthian colony of Apollonia, Albania (established ca. 600 BC).

Late Middle Pleistocene hominin teeth from Panxian Dadong, South China.

The hominin teeth and evidence of hominin activities recovered from 1991 to 2005 at the Panxian Dadong site in South China are dated to the late Middle Pleistocene (MIS 8-6 or ca. 130-300 ka), a period for which very little is known about the morphology of Asian populations. The present study provides the first detailed morphometric description and comparisons of four hominin teeth (I(1), C1, P(3) and P3) from this site.

Antemortem trauma and survival in the late Middle Pleistocene human cranium from Maba, South China.

Paleopathological assessment of the late Middle Pleistocene archaic human cranium from Maba, South China, has documented a right frontal squamous exocranially concave and ridged lesion with endocranial protrusion. Differential diagnosis indicates that it resulted from localized blunt force trauma, due to an accident or, more probably, interhuman aggression. As such it joins a small sample of pre-last glacial maximum Pleistocene human remains with probable evidence of humanly induced trauma.

A new brain endocast of Homo erectus from Hulu Cave, Nanjing, China.

A new brain endocast of Homo erectus from Hulu Cave, Tangshan, Nanjing is described and compared with a broad sample of endocasts of H. erectus, Neanderthals, and recent modern humans. The Nanjing 1 endocast is reconstructed based on two portions of endocranial casts taken from the original fossil fragments.