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Apart from helping us understand past communities' response to climate change and their plant management resilience mechanisms, archaeobotanical information may also serve as a basis to rethink our economic system and implement new solutions to current challenges (e.g. re-adopt forgotten crops or implement circular economy models). Already fragile by nature, the integrity of archaeobotanical heritage is affected by current climate events, such as changes in temperature and precipitation. One consequence is the loss of precious knowledge about past economies and human-environment interactions and its potential to inform us on questions relevant to the present and future. With the Iberian Peninsula as an example, we present a thoughtful insight into the manifold kind of information derived from archaeobotanical assemblages and the harm in losing it. Finally, we call for action to fight against climate change while drawing archaeologists' attention to the importance of protecting archaeobotanical heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Clinical implications of prenatal diagnosis of umbilical cord cysts" by R. Saviron Cornudella and colleagues is presented.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the effects of botulinum toxin A (BTX-A) infiltration on face muscle function, synkinesis, and quality of life in patients with sequelae of peripheral facial palsy (PFP)., Material and Methods: We present the results of a prospective study including a sample of 20 patients with sequelae of PFP (15 women, 5 men) who underwent BTX-A (Botox® or Xeomin®) infiltration. All patients had previously received personalised treatment with neuromuscular retraining. A clinical assessment was performed before BTX-A infiltration and 4weeks after treatment. The effect of BTX-A on face muscle function, quality of life, and synkinesis was evaluated using the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (SFGS), the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation (FaCE) questionnaire, and the Synkinesis Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), respectively., Results: Mean SFGS scores increased from 64.8 to 69.9 after BTX-A infiltration (P=.004). Increases were also observed in mean total FaCE scores (from 52.42 to 64.5; P<.001) and the mean score on the FaCE social function subscale (from 61.15 to 78.44; P<.001). Mean SAQ scores decreased from 46.22 to 37.55 after BTX-A infiltration (P=.001)., Conclusions: BTX-A infiltration increases face muscle function, improves quality of life, and reduces synkinesis in patients with sequelae of PFP., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to set up antimicrobial stewardship for swine respiratory pathogens following the recommendation from the European Medicine Agency. The obtained antimicrobial susceptibility pattern recommended using antimicrobial stewardship for each clinical case instead of treatment guidelines focused on pathogens. Thus, the bacteria are isolated and the MIC values, the clinical interpretation for each antimicrobial (susceptible or resistant), additional information about the distance between the MIC obtained and the clinical breakpoint, and set up for each drug, are represented in the report provided for veterinarians. A graph from green (susceptible) to red (resistant) is enclosed for each antimicrobial and microorganism in the report. The greener, the more susceptible is the strain, and the redder, the less susceptible is the strain for each particular antimicrobial. This information could help veterinarians to select the most suitable antimicrobial from first, second, or last option antimicrobials. Thus, veterinarians should choose the antimicrobial, inside each option, with the best antimicrobial susceptibility pattern that corresponds with the greener status in the report. The information provided in the report could be useful for all clinical cases, caused by a certain bacterium within the same pig production system, if an epidemiological link could be established.

The archaeological site of Lepenski Vir is widely known after its remarkable stone art sculptures that represent a unique and unprecedented case of Holocene hunter-gatherer creativity. These artworks were found largely associated with equally unique trapezoidal limestone building floors around their centrally located rectangular stone-lined hearths. A debate has raged since the discovery of the site about the chronological place of various discovered features. While over years different views from that of the excavator about the stratigraphy and chronology of the site have been put forward, some major disagreements about the chronological position of the features that make this site a key point of reference in European Prehistory persist. Despite challenges of re-analyzing the site's stratigraphy from the original excavation records, taphonomic problems, and issues of reservoir offsets when providing radiocarbon measurements on human and dog bones, our targeted AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating of various contexts from this site with the application of Bayesian statistical modelling allows us to propose with confidence a new and sound chronological framework and provide formal estimates for several key developments represented in the archaeological record of Lepenski Vir that help us in understanding the transition of last foragers to first farmers in southeast Europe as a whole.

With its well-preserved archaeological and environmental records, Aghitu-3 Cave permits us to examine the settlement patterns of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) people who inhabited the Armenian Highlands. We also test whether settlement of the region between ∼39-24,000 cal BP relates to environmental variability. The earliest evidence occurs in archaeological horizon (AH) VII from ∼39-36,000 cal BP during a mild, moist climatic phase. AH VI shows periodic occupation as warm, humid conditions prevailed from ∼36-32,000 cal BP. As the climate becomes cooler and drier at ∼32-29,000 cal BP (AH V-IV), evidence for occupation is minimal. However, as cooling continues, the deposits of AH III demonstrate that people used the site more intensively from ∼29-24,000 cal BP, leaving behind numerous stone artifacts, faunal remains, and complex combustion features. Despite the climatic fluctuations seen across this 15,000-year sequence, lithic technology remains attuned to one pattern: unidirectional reduction of small cores geared towards the production of bladelets for tool manufacture. Subsistence patterns also remain stable, focused on medium-sized prey such as ovids and caprids, as well as equids. AH III demonstrates an expansion of social networks to the northwest and southwest, as the transport distance of obsidian used to make stone artifacts increases. We also observe the addition of bone tools, including an eyed needle, and shell beads brought from the east, suggesting that these people manufactured complex clothing and wore ornaments. Remains of micromammals, birds, charcoal, pollen, and tephra relate the story of environmental variability. We hypothesize that UP behavior was linked to shifts in demographic pressures and climatic changes. Thus, by combining archaeological and environmental data, we gain a clearer picture about the first UP inhabitants of the Armenian Highlands., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Kaldar Cave is a key archaeological site that provides evidence of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Iran. Excavations at the site in 2014-2015 led to the discovery of cultural remains generally associated with anatomically modern humans (AMHs) and evidence of a probable Neanderthal-made industry in the basal layers. Attempts have been made to establish a chronology for the site. These include four thermoluminescence (TL) dates for Layer 4, ranging from 23,100 ± 3300 to 29,400 ± 2300 BP, and three AMS radiocarbon dates from charcoal samples belonging to the lower part of the same layer, yielding ages of 38,650-36,750 cal BP, 44,200-42,350 cal BP, and 54,400-46,050 cal BP (all at the 95.4% confidence level). Kaldar Cave is the first well-stratified Late Palaeolithic locality to be excavated in the Zagros which is one of the earliest sites with cultural materials attributed to early AMHs in western Asia. It also offers an opportunity to study the technological differences between the Mousterian and the first Upper Palaeolithic lithic technologies as well as the human behaviour in the region. In this study, we present a detailed description of the newly excavated stratigraphy, quantified results from the lithic assemblages, preliminary faunal remains analyses, geochronologic data, taphonomic aspects, and an interpretation of the regional paleoenvironment.

A refugium is generally understood as an area where temperate species survive cold periods, such as the Iberian, Italian, or Balkan Peninsulas in Europe. Strictly speaking, this definition refers to what is known as a glacial refugium. However, there are various types of lesser-known refugia such as the interglacial refugium, which denotes a mountainous region at low latitudes, such as the Pyrenees, where species adapted to the cold survive during interstadial periods. The small-vertebrate association from the sequence of Cova Colomera, which is located on the southern face of the Pyrenees and contains the final cold spell of the Late Pleistocene and the beginnings of the temperate period in which we currently find ourselves (the Holocene), could constitute the first fossil evidence of such an interglacial refugium, thus providing new paleoecological data on the phenomenon.

The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology. However, the purportedly oldest of the Early Pleistocene sites in Eurasia lack precise age control and contain stone tools rather than human fossil remains. Here we report the discovery of a human mandible associated with an assemblage of Mode 1 lithic tools and faunal remains bearing traces of hominin processing, in stratigraphic level TE9 at the site of the Sima del Elefante, Atapuerca, Spain. Level TE9 has been dated to the Early Pleistocene (approximately 1.2-1.1 Myr), based on a combination of palaeomagnetism, cosmogenic nuclides and biostratigraphy. The Sima del Elefante site thus emerges as the oldest, most accurately dated record of human occupation in Europe, to our knowledge. The study of the human mandible suggests that the first settlement of Western Europe could be related to an early demographic expansion out of Africa. The new evidence, with previous findings in other Atapuerca sites (level TD6 from Gran Dolina), also suggests that a speciation event occurred in this extreme area of the Eurasian continent during the Early Pleistocene, initiating the hominin lineage represented by the TE9 and TD6 hominins.