Diversity in matrilineages among the Jomon individuals of Japan.

Background: The Jomon period of Japan is characterised by a unique combination of sedentary and hunting/gathering lifestyles, spanning for more than 10,000 years from the final Pleistocene to the Holocene. The transition from the preceding Palaeolithic period to the Jomon period is known to have begun with the appearance of pottery usage. However, knowledge of the genetic background of the Jomon people is still limited.

Estimation of sibilant groove formation and sound generation from early hominin jawbones.

The speech production capability of sibilant fricatives of early hominin was assessed by interpolating the modern human vocal tract to an Australopithecine specimen based on the jawbone landmarks, and then simulating the airflow and sound generation. The landmark interpolation demonstrates the possibility to form the sibilant groove in the anterior part of the oral tract, and results of the aeroacoustic simulation indicate that the early hominins had the potential to produce the fricative broadband noise with a constant supply of airflow to the oral cavity, although the ancestor's tongue deformation ability is still uncertain, and the results are highly speculative.

HLA-haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation following reduced-intensity conditioning with very low-dose antithymocyte globulin for relapsed/refractory acute leukemia in pediatric patients: a single-institution retrospective analysis.

The prognosis of relapsed/refractory (R/R) pediatric acute leukemia is extremely poor. We retrospectively reviewed 20 consecutive pediatric patients with R/R acute leukemia who underwent a first HLA-haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation following reduced-intensity conditioning (haplo-RIC-PBSCT) with very low-dose antithymocyte globulin (ATG) between 2012 and 2019. Of these 20 patients, 7 patients had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and 13 had acute myeloid leukemia.

Early development of the Neanderthal ribcage reveals a different body shape at birth compared to modern humans.

Ontogenetic studies provide clues for understanding important paleobiological aspects of extinct species. When compared to that of modern humans, the adult Neanderthal thorax was shorter, deeper, and wider. This is related to the wide Neanderthal body and is consistent with their hypothetical large requirements for energy and oxygen.