Flavonoids and Omega3 Prevent Muscle and Cardiac Damage in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Animal Model.

Nutraceutical products possess various anti-inflammatory, antiarrhythmic, cardiotonic, and antioxidant pharmacological activities that could be useful in preventing oxidative damage, mainly induced by reactive oxygen species. Previously published data showed that a mixture of polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, mediate an antioxidative response in mdx mice, Duchenne muscular dystrophy animal model. Dystrophic muscles are characterized by low regenerative capacity, fibrosis, fiber necrosis, inflammatory process, altered autophagic flux and inadequate anti-oxidant response. FLAVOmega ß is a mixture of flavonoids and docosahexaenoic acid. In this study, we evaluated the role of these supplements in the amelioration of the pathological phenotype in dystrophic mice through in vitro and in vivo assays. FLAVOmega ß reduced inflammation and fibrosis, dampened reactive oxygen species production, and induced an oxidative metabolic switch of myofibers, with consequent increase of mitochondrial activity, vascularization, and fatigue resistance. Therefore, we propose FLAVOmega ß as food supplement suitable for preventing muscle weakness, delaying inflammatory milieu, and sustaining physical health in patients affected from DMD.

Projectile, blunt, or sharp force trauma? A facial lesion on a Bronze Age skull from Uglemose, Denmark.

This study presents and discusses the differential diagnosis of a unique case of facial trauma. The adult male skull was excavated in 1948 from Uglemose (Owl Bog) outside of Birket, on the island of Lolland (Denmark). Carbon-14 samples from an adult tibia excavated with the skull dates to the end of the Danish Bronze Age and transition period into the pre-Roman Iron Age. The skull shows a traumatic ante-mortem lesion to the left maxilla, directly below the orbit, that opens into the maxillary sinus. The left margin of the injury is slightly rounded and angled into the lesion while the right margin is pulled out from the lesion and has a much sharper border, suggesting a directional force from left to right. A previous assessment of the lesion suggested that projectile trauma caused the injury, but the lesion does not conclusively demonstrate features of projectile trauma. CT scans and 3D visualization of the skull show no evidence of structural changes to the maxillary sinus to support a conclusion of projectile trauma. Differential diagnosis through macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the lesion would suggest rapid blunt force or slow sharp force trauma as a potential etiology. The aim of this case study is to discuss the potential mechanisms of injury, including type of trauma as well as accidental versus intentional etiologies.

A matter of months: High precision migration chronology of a Bronze Age female.

Establishing the age at which prehistoric individuals move away from their childhood residential location holds crucial information about the socio dynamics and mobility patterns in ancient societies. We present a novel combination of strontium isotope analyses performed on the over 3000 year old "Skrydstrup Woman" from Denmark, for whom we compiled a highly detailed month-scale model of her migration timeline. When combined with physical anthropological analyses this timeline can be related to the chronological age at which the residential location changed. We conducted a series of high-resolution strontium isotope analyses of hard and soft human tissues and combined these with anthropological investigations including CT-scanning and 3D visualizations. The Skrydstrup Woman lived during a pan-European period characterized by technical innovation and great social transformations stimulated by long-distance connections; consequently she represents an important part of both Danish and European prehistory. Our multidisciplinary study involves complementary biochemical, biomolecular and microscopy analyses of her scalp hair. Our results reveal that the Skrydstrup Woman was between 17-18 years old when she died, and that she moved from her place of origin -outside present day Denmark- to the Skrydstrup area in Denmark 47 to 42 months before she died. Hence, she was between 13 to 14 years old when she migrated to and resided in the area around Skrydstrup for the rest of her life. From an archaeological standpoint, this one-time and one-way movement of an elite female during the possible "age of marriageability" might suggest that she migrated with the aim of establishing an alliance between chiefdoms. Consequently, this detailed multidisciplinary investigation provides a novel tool to reconstruct high resolution chronology of individual mobility with the perspective of studying complex patterns of social and economic interaction in prehistory.

Archaeological, radiological, and biological evidence offer insight into Inca child sacrifice.

Examination of three frozen bodies, a 13-y-old girl and a girl and boy aged 4 to 5 y, separately entombed near the Andean summit of Volcán Llullaillaco, Argentina, sheds new light on human sacrifice as a central part of the Imperial Inca capacocha rite, described by chroniclers writing after the Spanish conquest. The high-resolution diachronic data presented here, obtained directly from scalp hair, implies escalating coca and alcohol ingestion in the lead-up to death. These data, combined with archaeological and radiological evidence, deepen our understanding of the circumstances and context of final placement on the mountain top. We argue that the individuals were treated differently according to their age, status, and ritual role. Finally, we relate our findings to questions of consent, coercion, and/or compliance, and the controversial issues of ideological justification and strategies of social control and political legitimation pursued by the expansionist Inca state before European contact.

Designing a serious game for in-field interventions to promote nightlife well-being.

Nightlife well-being interventions, although much needed, face several challenges related to the specificity of the context addressed. We argue that a game-facilitated intervention helps with facing these challenges. The characteristics of a game developed to this goal and the results of user tests conducted in situ are presented.