Assembling Ancestors: the manipulation of Neolithic and Gallo-Roman skeletal remains from Pommerœul, Belgium.

The ancient cemetery of Pommerœul, Belgium, was classified as Gallo-Roman in the 1970s', yielding 76 cremation graves and one inhumation. However, subsequent radiocarbon analyses dated the inhumation to the Late Neolithic (4-3 millennium calBC). We report osteoarchaeological analysis indicating that the inhumation was composed of bones from multiple individuals, afterwards buried as "one".

Effect of antibody-mediated connective tissue growth factor neutralization on lung edema in ventilator-induced lung injury in rats.

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by alveolar edema that can progress to septal fibrosis. Mechanical ventilation can augment lung injury, termed ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a mediator of fibrosis, is increased in ARDS patients.

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers.

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago.

The burning maze: The potential value of the human bony labyrinth in estimating sex of calcined remains.

Estimating sex from burnt human remains is a challenging task in bioanthropology, mainly due to their high level of alteration and fragmentation. Protected within the petrous part of the temporal bone, the bony labyrinth may be particularly valuable for assessing the sex of burnt remains. This prospective study aims at testing predictive models, already found reliable on unburnt bony labyrinths, to burnt specimens.

Sexing the bony labyrinth: A morphometric investigation in a subadult and adult Belgian identified sample.

In forensic anthropology, sex estimation is a fundamental step in assessing individual biological profiles when analyzing human skeletons. Yet, current methods are not reliable enough to allow an accurate sex identification of highly fragmented, burnt, or subadult remains. This paper aims to investigate sexual dimorphism of the bony labyrinth on both identified subadult and adult individuals.

Risk assessment for intra-abdominal injury following blunt trauma in children: Derivation and validation of a machine learning model.

Background: Computed tomography is the criterion standard for diagnosing intra-abdominal injury (IAI) but is expensive and risks radiation exposure. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) model identifies children at low risk of IAI requiring intervention (IAI-I) in whom computed tomography may be omitted but does not provide an individualized risk assessment to positively predict IAI-I. We sought to apply machine learning algorithms to the PECARN blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) data set experimentally to create models for predicting both the presence and absence of IAI-I for pediatric BAT victims.

Derivation and Validation of a Simplified Clinical Prediction Rule for Identifying Children at Increased Risk for Clinically Important Traumatic Brain Injuries Following Minor Blunt Head Trauma.

Objective: To develop a simplified clinical prediction tool for identifying children with clinically important traumatic brain injuries (ciTBIs) after minor blunt head trauma by applying machine learning to the previously reported Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network dataset.

Study Design: The deidentified dataset consisted of 43 399 patients <18 years old who presented with blunt head trauma to 1 of 25 pediatric emergency departments between June 2004 and September 2006. We divided the dataset into derivation (training) and validation (testing) subsets; 4 machine learning algorithms were optimized using the training set.

An interdisciplinary study around the reliquary of the late cardinal Jacques de Vitry.

The reliquary of Jacques de Vitry, a prominent clergyman and theologian in the early 13th century, has experienced several transfers over the last centuries, which seriously question the attribution of the remains to the late Cardinal. Uncertainty about the year of his birth poses an additional question regarding his age at death in 1240. The reliquary, located in the Saint Marie d'Oigines church, Belgium, was reopened in 2015 for an interdisciplinary study around his relics as well as the Treasure of Oignies, a remarkable cultural heritage notably built from Jacques de Vitry's donation.

A secondary mandibular condylar articulation and collateral effects on a Late Neolithic mandible from Bois Madame rockshelter in Arbre, Belgium.

A Neolithic Belgian mandible from Bois Madame rockshelter in Arbre presents an asymmetrical morphology resulting from a secondary, or false, articulation of the right mandibular condyle. The pathological articulation produced enlarged masseter, medial pterygoid and mylohyoid musculature on the right side as well as a flattening of the right incisal alveolus curvature. The secondary condylar articulation did not lead to pronounced asymmetry of attrition on the antimeres of the dental arcade.

Age-at-death estimation of pathological individuals: A complementary approach using teeth cementum annulations.

Bioarchaeologists rely on accurate estimations of age-at-death. Clearly, some pathological conditions are associated with gross morphological changes in the skeleton that could impact the effectiveness of age-at-death estimation (i.e.

Normal growth, altered growth? Study of the relationship between harris lines and bone form within a post-medieval plague cemetery (Dendermonde, Belgium, 16th Century).

Objectives: Harris lines (HLs) are defined as transverse, mineralized lines associated with temporary growth arrest. In paleopathology, HLs are used to reconstruct health status of past populations. However, their etiology is still obscure.

Palatine sutures as age indicator: a controlled study in the elderly.

Vault sutures have proven their low reliability for estimating age at death in individual forensic science cases. We broke down the palatine sutures of 134 skulls (with known sex and age at time of death) into 15 subparts and 5 stages of fusion to obtain a mean coefficient of obliteration (Cp) which was then linked to five age classes. We completed this study with multiple regression equations of total palatine suture scores.

[Contributions of dentistry to physical anthropology: example of the medieval cemetery of Coxyde].

The role of the odontologist is crucial for the study of archaeological material. The excavations at the site of the ancient abbey of the Dunes of Koksijde led to the discovery of more than a thousand burial places. It is possible to estimate the age of the skeletons by studying molar dental wear.

A Mesolithic case of odontoma?

An ovoid yellowish object has been discovered in an Early Mesolithic collective burial located in the Meuse Basin: the Autours rockshelter (Prov. of Namur, Belgium). It was found among commingled hand and foot bones in a small crack of the rockshelter wall.