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Purpose: Socioeconomic differences in dental maturation can be used to examine the impact of environmental factors on dental maturation. The purpose of this study is to assess socioeconomic differences in dental maturation of the seven permanent mandibular teeth (I1-M2). Methods: A total of 2114 panoramic radiographs of Portuguese children, adolescents and young adults were studied. The sample was divided into a high socioeconomic status (SES) (n = 925), and a low SES group (n = 1189). Ages ranged between 5 and 26 years. Demirjian's stages were used to assess the maturation of the seven mandibular teeth on the left side. Median-age of attainment of each stage and each tooth was calculated and compared between groups using binary logistic regression. Results: Low SES girls showed a consistent advancement in dental maturation across the entire dentition. Low SES boys, however, showed more often a delayed maturation relative to their high SES counterparts, but this pattern was not consistent and a clear socioeconomic difference seems to be absent in boys. Conclusions: While this study was not able to further explore the causes of the dental advancement in girls, it is hypothesized that it might be related to a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, and possibly caries, in low SES girls, compared to the SES difference in prevalence in boys.

Objective: To study growth pattern of weight and length/height in male and female children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). Methods: A total of 348 patients (boys: 182, girls: 166) aged 1 to 18 years, diagnosed as cases of JIA and categorized into oligoarthritis, polyarthritis and systemic arthritis were enrolled in this mixed-longitudinal study from Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic of Advanced Pediatrics Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. Weight and length/height measurements were recorded at approximately 6 monthly intervals in Growth Laboratory/Growth Clinic of the department over a period of 13 years. Mean (SD) for weight and length/height were computed. Unpaired Student's t-test was employed to ascertain gender differences. Analysis of variance and post-hoc Bonferroni tests were applied to evaluate inter-group differences. Results: A regular increase in weight and length/height of all children representing three types of JIA was noticed throughout the study period. Maximum growth impairment was seen in patients with systemic JIA. Children with oligoarthritis were least affected. Boys with oligoarthritis, measured lighter and shorter than girls. Gender differences for children with polyarthritis demonstrated inconsistent trends. Boys with systemic JIA generally measured lighter than girls. Boys with systemic JIA measured taller than girls upto 4 years and thereafter they remained shorter till 14 years. Conclusions: As compared to normal children (2000 CDC), impaired weight and length/height growth attainments were recorded in oligoarthritis, polyarthritis and systemic JIA patients throughout the study span. However, the magnitude of this impairment appears to be related to the subtype of JIA.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to present possible differences in spondylometric dimorphic characteristics of lumbar spine in the period of progressive development. Material and methods: The research material included 24,517 individuals of both sexes aged from 3 to 25. Individuals that showed abnormal structure of the motor system and individuals reporting pain in the joints of the spine were excluded. Spondylometric research was carried out using the Penny & Giles electrogoniometric measuring system. Significance tests concerning position measurements (Student's t-test, Welch's t-test) were used as well as biometric profiles formed on the basis of Mollison index for each characteristic in the studied period of ontogenesis. The progress of development of the examined spondylometric characteristics in both sex groups was calculated on the basis of expressing the size of the feature in successive age groups as a percentage of its final size. Using the linear and polynomial regression models, the developmental lines of the studied spondylometric parameters were obtained in males and females. Results: In the development process of the studied spondylometric parameters, dimorphic diversity can be observed essentially only in adolescence. In general, in the whole studied period of ontogenetic development, the greater range of lumbar spine mobility is found in females. Minor sexual dimorphism is also evident in the dynamics of development and in the stage of development of the majority of examined characteristics in individual age ranges in relation to the final values, for the benefit of the female sex.

Infection caused by Novel Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic and is spreading across 213 countries and territories around the world with severe implications. The present paper tries to review the relationship of SARS-Cov-2 infection with ACE2 expression, gene polymorphism and cardiovascular malfunctions, hypertension and type-2 diabetes. The paper highlights the fact that since ACE2 gene polymorphisms tend to be population specific, screening of ACE2 polymorphisms in diverse population groups across geographies could be beneficial in evaluating the severity to SARS-Cov-2 infection.

The analysis of surface bone changes is an essential aspect of the paleopathological examination of skeletal remains from archaeological and forensic contexts, and proper digital imaging is an indispensable aspect of the documentation of bone modifications. This paper evaluates the applicability of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to the study of pathological bone surface changes in human remains. Forty-five samples of human bones and teeth from medieval and early modern Estonian cemeteries were photographed and subjected to RTI imaging to document the pathological conditions that typically result in subtle surface modifications. Subperiosteal Bone Production (SBP), abnormal porosity, cribra orbitalia, endocranial lesions and lytic lesions in bone, as well as enamel hypoplasia and dental calculus in teeth were successfully represented with this technique. The results indicate that RTI allows visualization of shallow and discrete bone changes that are otherwise unnoticed. In some cases, this technique provides a better understanding of the nature and development of particular pathological processes than possible with conventional imaging. Although it cannot entirely replace microscopic and radiological techniques, RTI can be successfully performed in a reasonably short time by non-specialist operators with limited funding and resources, thus enabling identification of specimens that should be subject to more expensive or time-consuming analyses. Hence, RTI constitutes a valuable tool for the representation of subtle surface details in pathological bone, and can successfully support standard photography in paleopathological studies, museum display and scientific communication.

Forensic sex estimation is a key component in attempts to identify human remains. The skull is often used for this purpose, but is often damaged or recovered in fragments. Studies of individual cranial bones are hampered by subjectivity in visual assessment and difficulties in the ability to capture complex shape variations, as well as accounting for population-specificity in the expression of sexual dimorphism. The present study employed geometric morphometric analysis to assess morphological variation of the occipital bones of 792 adult South African individuals. Though sexual differences in size were detected, shape dimorphism was not detected until ancestry was simultaneously accounted for. Female occipital bones were less robust but more sloped than those of males. Detected variation between ancestry groups was sufficient to produce approximately 80% classification accuracies for Black and White groups, and 74% for the highly heterogeneous Coloured group. When variation was assessed according to sex and ancestry simultaneously, groups could be distinguished with 74.8% accuracy. Shape variation showed no significant age or secular trend changes, though some weak positive allometric influence was detected in the variation between sexes and between the Coloured group and the other two ancestry groups. This study demonstrated that even isolated bones such as the occipital could be used for sex and ancestry estimation, though population differences must be considered. The geometric morphometric analysis was found to allow objective and sufficiently sensitive detection of variation in the complex occipital shape to allow for accurate distinction of even highly heterogeneous and closely related groups, even when using a limited number of cranial landmarks. Thus, similar analyses of the occipital may be employed in forensic cases where the cranium has been damaged or only the occipital bone is recovered and available for analysis.

The Djehuty Project (Dra Abu el-Naga; Luxor, Egypt) contains a reused burial chamber, UE165. The human remains include 6 disarticulated, mummified human digits, of which five have very well-conserved prints. The most plausible dating is the Twenty-Second Dynasty (945-715 BCE). High resolution photographs were taken of these and studied in order to identify the main pattern, delta types and minutiae, ridge density and ridge breadth. First, however, a contemporary mummified body was studied in order to calculate the percentage of contraction that can occur in mummified digit tissue. The remains consisted of 4 fingers (a thumb, two index fingers and a middle finger) and a hallux toe, all from the right side, indicating that they came from at least two different people. As regards sex, all the fingers presented values typical of females. Estimated age ranged from 10.62 (middle finger) to 16.25 (thumb) years old, within the sub-adult category. The individual's height was estimated for all the fingers, obtaining values between 135.87 cm for the middle finger and 162.60 cm for the thumb. With regard to the possible ancestral origins of the remains, the type of delta o triradius identified presents high frequencies in contemporary Nigerian and Romanian populations. These results demonstrate that it is possible to work with fingerprints as much as 3,000 years old. It has been possible to identify the main patterns and the minutiae with a precision that exceeds the numeric standard -12 minutiae- currently applied in many countries for forensic identification.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence of various types of malocclusions in a group of female patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), as well as the association between occlusal anomalies and the side, location, and severity of the spine deformity. The study group was comprised of 60 females aged 12-16 years with AIS and 54 healthy controls. Apart from clinical examination, alginate impressions and wax bites were taken. Occlusal traits were assessed on the casts in maximum intercuspation. Data were statistically analyzed with a significance taken as p < 0.05. All patients with AIS showed at least one abnormal orthodontic trait, while 9 (16.7%) patients from the control group had dentition free from any orthodontic anomaly. The difference was statistically significant (p = 0.0032). In the sagittal dimension, patients with AIS had a higher frequency of bilateral distocclusion and unilateral mesiocclusion as compared to the control group (p = 0.0004 and p = 0.0034, respectively). They also showed crowding, increased overjet and overbite more often than healthy age- mates (p = 0.0417, p = 0.0121, and p = 0.0166, respectively). Regarding the association between site, side, or severity of scoliosis and the occurrence of the malocclusion, asymmetric molar occlusion was more frequently observed in patients with right convex (p = 0.0149), while unilateral mesiocclusion, appeared more often in patients with the thoracic apex of the curve (p = 0.0349). The results emphasize a need for collaboration between orthopedists and orthodontists in the complex medical care for scoliotic individuals. Orthodontic treatment can alleviate negative impact that a malocclusion has on the oral health, aesthetics, and psychological well-being of this vulnerable group of patients.

Objective:Menarcheal age is the starting point of reproductive life and could be a marker of health and socioeconomic status of a population.The aim of this study was to assess the temporal pattern in variability of menarcheal age from 2001 to 2019 and the relationship with biological factors and educational level of parents. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional anthropometric survey was conducted in three intervals: 2001-2004, 2011-2014 and in 2019. In total, 5201 adolescent girls from Vojvodina (North Serbia) aged 11-18 were surveyed, 3272 (62.91%) of them with menarche. Data on the age at menarche was gathered applying status quo method and the age at menarche was calculated by probit analysis. The surveyed traits included height, weight and Body mass index (BMI). Results: Mean menarcheal age declined from 12.60 ± 1.11 years to 12.33 ± 1.20 years during the period from 2001 to 2019. Within three investigated periods variance decreased after the first decade from 1.23 year² to 1.09 year², and then increased to 1.44 year². On average, postmenarcheal girls were 4.36 cm taller, 8.03 kg heavier, and their BMI was 1.96 kg/m² higher than in premenarcheal girls of the same calendar age. An inverse effect of BMI and mother's education on the menarcheal age was detected, but the interaction between the variables was not statistically significant. Conclusion: These results indicate continuing decrease in menarcheal age in girls from Vojvodina. Menarche is closely associated with BMI and it appears that this factor effects the age at menarche irrespective of the parents' education.