American Journal of Human Biology最新文献

{"title":"Mental Health and Physiological Biomarkers Under Legal Uncertainty: Evidence From Asylum Centers in Serbia","authors":"Jelena Jankovic-Rankovic,&nbsp;Rahul C. Oka,&nbsp;Jerrold S. Meyer,&nbsp;Lee T. Gettler","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70284","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70284","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Objectives</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Asylum, grounded in international law, provides protection to individuals fleeing persecution, war, or violence by ensuring legal residency, fundamental rights, and pathways to integration, while reflecting the global commitment to human dignity, justice, and solidarity. Using data from asylum seekers and non-asylum seekers within a shared context of displacement in three asylum centers in Serbia, we examined the associations between the asylum process, mental health, and physiological markers.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>In this mixed-methods study of asylum seekers (aged 18–55 years, <i>n</i> = 242), we collected key socio-demographic information, migration- and asylum-related variables, and self-reported measures of mental well-being, along with physiological markers relevant to exposure to chronic psychosocial stress (fingernail cortisol and blood pressure measures).</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We found that asylum seekers reported better mental and physical health and lower PTSD-related symptoms (assessed with the RHS-15 and IES-R) compared to non-asylum seekers, while there was no significant difference between the groups in recent perceived stress (measured by PSS scores). We also found that asylum seekers had higher nail cortisol levels as well as higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared to their non-asylum seeker peers.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Conclusion</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Although our study is cross-sectional, it emphasizes that the asylum process is more than just a legal or bureaucratic procedure. It is a significant social determinant of health. The physiological stress observed in asylum seekers highlights an urgent need for systemic reforms and targeted health interventions to reduce both the psychological and physiological effects of forced displacement, extended legal uncertainty, and structural constraints.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148165254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tracing the Origins of Human Disease: A Phylogenomic Toolkit for Identifying Evolutionary Trade-Offs","authors":"Camillo Tancredi Strizzi,&nbsp;B. Natterson-Horowitz","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70287","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70287","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Evolutionary trade-offs, in which adaptations that confer fitness advantages simultaneously create disease vulnerabilities, are widely recognized across human biology. Such trade-offs have traditionally been identified through forward reasoning: investigators with deep knowledge of a particular disease recognize that an associated gene or pathway also serves an adaptive function and propose a trade-off hypothesis on this basis. While productive, this approach is opportunistic and disease-specific. No systematic method exists for working in reverse: starting from a disease and tracing its genetic underpinnings to the adaptive biology under historical selection. Here we present a six-step integrative toolkit for identifying disease-specific evolutionary trade-offs. The toolkit proceeds from (1) curating disease-associated gene sets using publicly available genomic platforms, through (2) profiling expression and pathway involvement, (3) identifying statistically enriched biological processes, (4) mapping genes to their evolutionary origins via phylostratigraphy, (5) linking gene emergence to macroevolutionary innovations, to (6) formulating testable trade-off hypotheses with experimental readouts. We discuss the toolkit's strengths and limitations, including conditions under which it is most and least informative, its relationship to developmental and life-history trade-offs, and the caveats inherent in phylostratigraphic dating and database composition. A cross-domain catalog of established trade-offs illustrates the breadth of trade-off biology across human disease. To demonstrate the toolkit in practice, we apply it to atherosclerosis, showing that its disease-susceptibility gene set is enriched in a lipid–immune integration program whose phylostratigraphic distribution converges temporally with the independently dated origin of the vertebrate endothelium (~540–510 MYA). By connecting present-day disease susceptibilities to historical adaptive benefits through an accessible, reproducible pipeline, this toolkit offers a practical method for human biologists investigating the evolutionary origins of disease vulnerability.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148165340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring Dynamic Inflammation Regulation in Low-Resource Settings: Results From a Sample of Adults in the Dominican Republic","authors":"Keegan C. Krause,&nbsp;Sayira Paola Mueses Jiménez,&nbsp;Franceska Duperval,&nbsp;Farah St. Juste,&nbsp;Aaron A. Miller,&nbsp;Thomas W. McDade","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70286","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70286","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Introduction</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Inflammatory signaling mediates several homeostatic mechanisms that shape health, and quantifying inflammation regulation patterns using ex vivo cell culture systems—response to activation and sensitivity to inhibition—improves upon baseline measures of chronic inflammation. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing an ex vivo cell culture system in a low-resource setting in the Dominican Republic.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study implements an ex vivo cell culture system to measure stimulated inflammation and glucocorticoid (GC) sensitivity using finger stick capillary blood collected from 202 adults in the Dominican Republic (age: 18–61 years).</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Median cytokine responses (pg/mL) to incubation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were robust for IL6 (58.0), IL1β (21.3), and TNFα (23.1). Median cytokine responses to incubation with LPS and GC—capturing sensitivity to inhibition—were attenuated for IL6 (20.2), IL1β (8.4), and TNFα (7.0).</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Conclusion</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Minimally invasive cell culture protocols offer novel research opportunities for measuring inflammation regulation and health in low-resource settings across diverse eco-social milieus.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ajhb.70286","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148145397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can We Generalize About the Mortality Features of the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic? An Examination of a Small-Scale and Isolated British Columbian Population","authors":"Lianne Tripp,&nbsp;Rhys Barber,&nbsp;Charlotte Boorman","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70271","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Objectives</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>In this paper we use the small-scale population of the Fort George area (located in the central interior of British Columbia, Canada) to test the applicability of the three signature mortality features of the 1918/19 influenza pandemic: mortality rates higher than those in preceding influenza epidemics except for the elderly; rapidly recurring waves; and W-shaped age mortality distribution.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Materials and Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Death records from the British Columbia Archives and the University of Northern British Columbia's Geoffrey R. Weller Library and Northern BC Archives Learning Resource on 1918 influenza in Prince George (which included the Corless Funeral ledger, the Prince George Citizen, and a Record of Confinements journal) were used to assess the presence of the signature features. Analyses were conducted on monthly influenza death rates for the duration of the influenza pandemic, from September 1918 until December 1920, and on age and sex-specific influenza rates.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Fort George area escaped a herald wave in the spring/summer of 1918, and the overall influenza death rate was 14.17 per 1000 living. The first wave, in the fall, peaked in the month of October at a rate of 5.24 per 1000 living. The male influenza death rate was 12.46 per 1000 living, and the female rate was higher, at 16.37 per 1000 living, but the rates were not significantly different (<i>Z</i> = −1.34; <i>p</i> = 0.180). The peak influenza death rate occurred in those 65 years or older.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Discussion</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We confirmed that two of the three mortality features were observed in Fort George. We could not assess whether the 1918/19 influenza pandemic had higher mortality rates relative to previous pandemics; however, the influenza death rate in the elderly was high, which indicates that older individuals were not exposed to the earlier influenza pandemics in the 19th century. The W-shape distribution of influenza death rates, coupled with narrative accounts, provides support for evidence that both single men and young families were negatively impacted by the pandemic.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ajhb.70271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148098813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physiological Responses to Occupational Heat Exposure Among Male Agricultural and Brick-Field Workers in Eastern India: A Biochemical Perspective","authors":"Aditya Nath,&nbsp;Debanjan Chakraborty,&nbsp;Subhashis Sahu","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70285","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70285","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Occupational heat exposure is considered a major health concern for workers performing strenuous work during hot environmental conditions. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the biochemical and physiological responses to occupational heat exposure among agricultural and brick-field workers working in hot environmental conditions in eastern India. A sub-sample of 20 agricultural workers and 20 brick-field workers was selected from the larger sample of 200 workers each to assess the physiological and biochemical responses to hot environmental conditions during the summer and winter seasons. Environmental heat exposure was measured using the time-weighted average Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (TWA-WBGT in °C). Venous blood samples were collected to measure the levels of sodium, potassium, and aldosterone. Active sweat gland responses were measured using the modified starch-iodine technique. Multivariate general linear models of repeated measures were used to measure the effect of the following factors: season, exposure day, and occupation. The multivariate analysis showed significant seasonal effects on serum potassium, sodium, and aldosterone levels, and that exposure day influenced only potassium, not occupation. The monitoring sessions showed normal physiological levels of electrolytes in both occupational groups. Sweat gland activation was also significantly higher during the summer season. TWA-WBGT values above 23°C–25°C are associated with a higher probability of hyponatremia, as revealed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. These findings highlight the physiological adjustments associated with occupational heat exposure and emphasize the importance of hydration and heat mitigation strategies for outdoor workers.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148058048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Response to the Letter to the Editor","authors":"Mustafa Gür,&nbsp;Ramazan Fazil Akkoc,&nbsp;Burak Oz,&nbsp;Ahmet Karatas,&nbsp;Süleyman Serdar Koca","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70283","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70283","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sexual Dimorphism in Facial and Body Shape and Their Relationship in Modern Humans of African, Asian, and European Descent","authors":"Marina L. Butovskaya,&nbsp;Victoria V. Rostovtseva,&nbsp;Daria A. Dronova,&nbsp;Anna A. Mezentseva,&nbsp;Olga V. Semenova,&nbsp;Anna V. Komarova,&nbsp;Yaroslav O. Sizov,&nbsp;Audax Mabulla,&nbsp;Alexander Kavina,&nbsp;Festus Mazengo,&nbsp;Nadezhda B. Dashieva,&nbsp;Natalia A. Struchkova,&nbsp;Natalia P. Matsakova,&nbsp;Anna A. Korotkova,&nbsp;Ruslan O. Butovsky","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70282","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70282","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Objectives</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Our study aimed to quantify the degrees of sexual dimorphism in facial shape and nineteen body parameters across eleven living populations from three major world regions: Sub-Saharan Africa (five populations), Europe (three populations), and Asia (three populations).</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The data were collected in Tanzania and Russian Federation (<i>N</i> = 2214 individuals, aged 16–35 years), utilizing identical methods. Facial shape was explored through geometric morphometrics based on photographs. Body parameters were obtained through direct measurements.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>We found that body parameters are highly sexually dimorphic in humans and have population specificity: in taller and more robust populations (Europeans, Asians), body height, bone mass, handgrip strength, and wrist diameter are the most dimorphic traits, whereas Africans demonstrate the highest variability in body dimorphism. In contrast, the degree of facial sexual dimorphism increases from minimum in Africans to intermediate in Asians and maximum in European populations. Sexually dimorphic facial shape patterns vary by population origin, with allometry on average explaining over half of the sex differences. We did not find a linear relationship between overall degrees of body and facial dimorphism across study populations. However, dimorphism in several isolated body parameters correlated with facial dimorphism at the population level. Particularly, for body height, handgrip strength, and bone mass, such correlations remained evident even after correction for population phylogenetic relatedness.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Conclusions</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Differences in degrees of sexual dimorphism in study populations cannot be explained by allometry alone, but rather they result from a complex interplay of various factors and pressures, including phylogenetic origin, environmental conditions, and cultural norms.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative Evaluation of Demirjian and Willems Methods for Dental Age Estimation in 7- to 12-Year-Old Children: A Cross-Sectional Study","authors":"Matine Gharavi,&nbsp;Sanaz Afzalsoltani,&nbsp;Zahra Salmani Varazghan","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70268","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ajhb.70268","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Objective</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Dental age estimation is vital in clinical and forensic dentistry. This study compared the accuracy of the Willems and Demirjian methods in estimating dental age among children aged 7–12 years in Alborz Province, Iran.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Materials and Methods</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>In this cross-sectional analytical study, 50 panoramic radiographs from 32 girls and 18 boys aged 7–12 years were analyzed. Chronological age was calculated using birth and radiograph dates. Dental age was estimated using the Willems and Demirjian methods. Statistical analysis, including paired <i>t</i>-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation, was conducted using SPSS version 25.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Results</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Willems method overestimated age by an average of 0.09 years (0.16 for boys, 0.05 for girls), while the Demirjian method overestimated by 0.44 years (0.26 for boys, 0.55 for girls). The smallest discrepancy was observed in boys aged 9–10 years (0.067 years), and the largest in girls aged 11–12 years (1.2 years). However, this finding should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size in this age group (<i>n</i> = 7).</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 \u0000 <section>\u0000 \u0000 <h3> Conclusion</h3>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Both methods showed a strong correlation with chronological age. The Willems method tended to produce estimates closer to chronological age than the Demirjian method in this sample. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small sample size in several age groups.</p>\u0000 </section>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148044714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thicker Than Water: A Social and Evolutionary Study of Iron Deficiency in Women. By E. Miller, Oxford University Press, 2023. 208 pp. New York. $34.95 (hard cover). ISBN: 978-0-19-766571-8.","authors":"Lukas J. Daniels,&nbsp;Katherine L. Nemeth,&nbsp;Jade A. Beauregard,&nbsp;Yining Pan,&nbsp;Simran Wadhwa,&nbsp;E. A. Quinn","doi":"10.1002/ajhb.70265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70265","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148087340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50809,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Human Biology","volume":"38 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148087341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}