[{"id":121,"title":"Forensic facial reconstruction or facial approximation?","sha":"3de860352042bb89562b088754e7cb9f","user_id":488,"state":"published","body":"Our body changes from one day to the other, from fat to thin, from young to old, without any significant facial bone surface modification. The same from upright to horizontal position, with gravitational deformations of sub-cutaneous fatty and muscular tissues [1]. Some databases using for such female reconstructions are taken from post-mortem CT-scan or ultrasound data, not evidently applicable to living individuals due to taphonomical ionic and water movements. Some structures such as the ears are, to date, absolutely impossible to reconstruct for technical reasons and a total lack of serious anthropological landmarks. Position of hairs is absolutely impossible from purely bony remaining surfaces. So, when using computer methods and anthropological databases, do we reconstruct a mean face, a special, a plausible or any face? In fact, we reconstruct only the closer to the mean, i.e. the more probable, some general traits that could be recognized by familiars (meaning: subjective visual assessment of resemblance). A proposition of reality, not reality itself, as reality changes from time to time.\r\n[1] Charlier P, Froesch P, Huynh-Charlier I, Fort A, Hurel A, Jullien F. Use of 3D surface scanning to match facial shapes against altered exhumed remains in a context of forensic individual identification. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 2014;10(4):654-661.","created_at":"2015-03-18T15:22:44.268Z","updated_at":"2015-03-19T06:00:20.737Z","zenodo_id":24967,"doi":"http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16167","subject":null,"tags":["forensic anthropology"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":369,"title":"Should scholars publish in the journal they are working for?","sha":"2d7096f0e06aac3c4b0c75ad64085423","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Should scholars publish in the journal they are working for (as editor-in-chief, for example?). In other words, is it legitimate to publish in his own journal, that is to say submit and co-sign in a journal of which one is editor-in-chief (except in the format of an editorial or a tribune)? Can one ensure compliance with the ICJME requirements, in particular regarding the objectivity of the reviewers and in the final decision-making [1]? A recent Twitter survey of 52 individuals showed that 42% did not oppose this publication standard (no limitation!), while 58% considered that this practice should be prohibited due to obvious conflicts of interest.\r\n\r\nReferences\r\n[1] ICJME. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals; 2015 [http://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf].\r\n","created_at":"2017-02-28T15:51:56.115Z","updated_at":"2017-05-13T04:31:15.232Z","zenodo_id":344615,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.344615","subject":null,"tags":["publication rules","medical ethics"],"vote_count":1,"view_count":1,"score":1.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":373,"title":"Human oral microbiome crisis at the end of 18th c.?","sha":"3e688fbc491d6d2db77b4035c5ad5b2c","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"Scholars have recently shown a clear increase in the frequency of caries and tooth loss for humans after the end of the 18th c. [1] For the authors, changes in nutrition (more sugar) and dental health (possibly higher frequency of tooth extraction) could be the underlying factors which led to this minor to moderate shift of dental disease frequencies in Europe. In fact, other major factors may have play a key-role at this period [2], causing a modification of oral microbiome, especially at the level of the dental plaque: introduction of first vaccinations (smallpox), apparition and/or increase of the consummation of new aliments (potatoes, coffee, chocolate, tomatoes, maize, etc.) or drugs (tobacco), beginning of the industrial revolution (with subsequent changes in the time and mode of work, and the adaptation of human biology to it). Further metagenomic analysis of dental calculus will be necessary to investigate any significant modification of the oral microbiome that could confirm or not this hypothesis, comparable to the procedures used for the evolutionary stages of pre-humans, but on a wider scale.\r\n\r\nReferences\r\n1. Müller A, Hussein K. Meta-analysis of teeth from European populations before and after the 18th century reveals a shift towards increased prevalence of caries and tooth loss. Arch Oral Biol. 2017;73:7-15.\r\n2. Andrews K. History of medicine: Health, medicine and disease in the eighteenth century. Br J 18th Cent Stud. 2011; 34: 503-15.","created_at":"2017-03-26T23:00:03.234Z","updated_at":"2017-03-27T06:00:22.183Z","zenodo_id":438198,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.438198","subject":null,"tags":["global health","intestinal tract","epidemiology","human evolution"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":true,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":394,"title":"DNA is a (geo)political weapon","sha":"7182f31111ece3391c70d565935862ca","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"The use of DNA (both modern and ancient: aDNA) for purposes of genetic traceability, ethnic filiation, migration of populations, etc. is currently experiencing exponential growth. These studies are (it is hoped) initially motivated by scientific questions and research methods, but the published data can be subject to racial, racist, religious, philosophical and, in the general Greek sense of the term, \"political\" uses. In this sense, DNA seems to us to constitute a true (geo)political weapon.\r\nShould we limit or regulate even more the study of human or pre-human DNA? Obviously no, it would change absolutely nothing. But one must be aware of the very political, very contentious scope, beyond a simple scientific result. Each data can be used for subversive purposes. Consequently, our presentation of results in the fields of molecular genetics and population genetics must be particularly rigorous, discussions limited, conclusions cautious. At the risk of providing arguments to the most dehumanized theories.","created_at":"2017-07-17T20:59:39.677Z","updated_at":"2017-08-12T01:57:11.763Z","zenodo_id":835598,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.835598","subject":null,"tags":["medical ethics","biomolecular analyses","medical anthropology"],"vote_count":2,"view_count":1,"score":2.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null},{"id":404,"title":"Is it necessary to liberalize genetic paternity tests in France?","sha":"07fd37437a391bb7c8a84109370c2e5d","user_id":null,"state":"published","body":"There is a real ethical problem with genetic paternity research In France. And first of all, a great hypocrisy: such test can be carried out on national territory only by court decision (at risk of being illegally for the subject and the analysis laboratory). However, many peripheral states (mainly Belgium, Holland and Spain) carry out this test in a liberal and commercial way: thus, it is possible to divert the law and send by mail a sample that will be analyzed abroad.\r\nWhy not authorize such paternity research in France outside any legal control? What is the risk? Cannot this liberalization be decided in the name of equal opportunities in access to information (intimate in this case): currently, only the richest have access to it, creating a double injustice (judicial and economic).\r\nThis liberalization finds its place in the current modification of the meaning of the family: to the traditional or rather historical family (in the Roman sense, then the Code Napoleon: those who live together under the same roof), the all-powerful reign of science (and, in the present case, molecular biology) is creating a new meaning for the family: to share the same genetic heritage. We are right here in the \"biopower\" of Michel Foucault, which radically changes the way we are responsible for access to information that is specific to us and that connects us to others, beginning with our close parents... supposedly and up to now proof of the contrary!","created_at":"2017-09-19T22:35:17.882Z","updated_at":"2017-09-20T06:01:23.562Z","zenodo_id":896958,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.896958","subject":null,"tags":["medical anthropology","forensics","medical ethics","international law","law"],"vote_count":0,"view_count":1,"score":0.1,"deleted":false,"muted":false,"tweeted":false,"attachment_file_name":null,"attachment_content_type":null,"attachment_file_size":null,"attachment_updated_at":null}]