Forensic anthropology and forensic medicine both have been fascinating fields that deal with mandibular characteristics and sex determination. Researchers may determine an individual\'s biological sex with amazing precision by examining the size, shape, and proportions of the mandible. This information is useful for anthropological studies and criminal investigations. This systematic review aims to evaluate the consistency and validity of using mandibles as a method for gender determination across different populations. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Further, a manual search was carried out to find additional studies. Mandibular parameters and other relevant data about research were extracted from the included studies. Random effects meta-analysis was carried out for four parameters. A total of nine studies were included in the systematic review out of 76 initial search results. All studies were in vitro. Nine studies were included in the qualitative analysis, whereas only seven studies were included in the meta-analysis. A total of 2385 individuals (1193 male and 1192 female) were evaluated in the included studies. The parameters assessed were as follows: minimum ramus breadth (MiRB), maximum ramus breadth (MaRB), projective ramus height (PRH), bigonial width (BGW), gonial angle (GA), and antegonial angle (AGA). Meta-analysis was conducted for four parameters out of six. For the two parameters, meta-analysis was not conducted as only one study was evaluated. Meta-analyses of PRH obtained a high degree of heterogeneity (99%), mean difference (MD) of 4.06 mm, and p-value of p=0.09. Meta-analysis of BGW obtained 93% heterogeneity, MD of 9.03 mm, and p=0.0007. Meta-analysis of GA showed 99% heterogeneity, MD of 3.44 mm, and p=0.66. Meta-analysis of AGA obtained a low heterogeneity of 30%, MD of -0.77 mm, and p=0.23. The parameter, BGW, can be considered a useful tool in identifying sex. The parameters, PRH, GA, and AGA, cannot be preferred as a reliable tool in identifying the sex of an individual in forensic contexts.

The field of forensic anthropology is characterised by its ongoing development and growth. Forensic anatomy is a burgeoning discipline that focuses on the analysis and identification of both preserved and unpreserved human body parts, both in deceased individuals and the living. This subject plays a crucial role in establishing the four key factors of forensic anthropology, namely sex, age, race, and height. The objective of this research endeavour was to evaluate the significance of anatomical information in the process of forensic age estimation. The researchers established the inclusion criteria in accordance with the globally recognised Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICOS) framework, as advised by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations. The research included many methodologies in order to ascertain the age. Upon conducting a comprehensive review of the existing literature pertaining to anatomical knowledge in the field of forensic age estimate, we have identified many notable applications. These include the utilisation of various anatomical features such as the dental pulp chamber, fingerprints, acetabulum, sternal end of the fourth rib, as well as hand and wrist bones for the purpose of age estimation. It is important for anatomists and other forensic scientists to engage in collaborative efforts to facilitate the exchange of ideas and ensure thorough investigations. This cooperation is particularly crucial in areas where anatomical sciences play a significant role in forensic science and investigation. Nevertheless, in order to mitigate the potential for estimating error, it is still advisable to use a multi-factorial evaluation approach that involves examining many body areas.

BACKGROUND: This study\'s goal is to identify the existing variation in how, why, and by whom anthropological practice is conducted as part of implementation science projects. As doctorally trained anthropologists, we sought to characterize how and why the term \"ethnography\" was variously applied in the implementation science literature and characterize the practice of anthropology within and across the field.
METHODS: While we follow the PRISMA-ScR checklist, we present the work with a narrative approach to accurately reflect our review process. A health services librarian developed a search strategy using subject headings and keywords for the following databases: PubMed, Embase (Elsevier), Cochrane CENTRAL (Wiley), CIHAHL (EBSCO), PsycINFO (EBSCO), Web of Science Core Collection, and Anthropology Plus (EBSCO). We focused on the practice of anthropology in implementation research conducted in a healthcare setting, in English, with no date restrictions. Studies were included if they applied one or several elements of anthropological methods in terms of study design, data collection, and/or analysis.
RESULTS: The database searches produced 3450 results combined after duplicates were removed, which were added to Rayyan for two rounds of screening by title and abstract. A total of 487 articles were included in the full-text screening. Of these, 227 were included and received data extraction that we recorded and analyzed with descriptive statistics in three main domains: (1) anthropological methods; (2) implementation science methods; and (3) study context. We found the use of characteristic tools of anthropology like ethnography and field notes are usually not systematically described but often mentioned. Further, we found that research design decisions and compromises (e.g., length of time in the field, logistics of stakeholder involvement, reconciling diverse firsthand experiences) that often impact anthropological approaches are not systematically described.
CONCLUSIONS: Anthropological work often supports larger, mixed-methods implementation projects without being thoroughly reported. Context is essential to anthropological practice and implicitly fundamental to implementation research, yet the goals of anthropology and how its practice informs larger research projects are often not explicitly stated.

Scholars have called for increased attention to sociocultural, economic, historical, and political processes shaping Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) ecology. We conducted a scoping review to identify major research themes and the knowledge gaps in social science literature in leishmaniases or Chagas disease (CD). Following the scoping review protocol, we first determined the focus of the review to be centered on identifying research that approaches leishmaniases and CD from social science perspective and was indexed by large, biomedically focused databases. We then searched PubMed and Web of Science using \"Leishmaniasis\" and \"Chagas disease\" with \"social science\" or \"anthropology\" as search terms. We analyzed 199 articles (123 on leishmaniases and 76 on CD), categorizing them into three main research themes. Sociocultural dimensions of the diseases (leishmaniases=60.2 %; CD=68.4 %) primarily focused on individuals\' knowledge, practices, and behaviors, barriers to accessing healthcare (especially in endemic regions), psychosocial effects, stigma, and traditional treatments. Research focused on socioeconomic dimensions of the diseases (leishmaniases=29.3 %; CD=19.7 %) included topics like household characteristics, social capital, and infrastructure access. A final theme, the historical and political contexts of the diseases (Leishmaniases=10.5 %; CD=11.9 %) was less common than other themes. Here, studies consider civil war and the (re)emergence of leishmaniasis, as well as the significance of CD discovery for scientific and public health in Brazil, which is the most common country for research on both leishmaniases and CD that draws on social science approaches. Future directions for research include focusing on how social institutions and economic factors shape diseases education, control measures, healthcare access, and quality of life of people affected by NTDs. Greater attention to social sciences can help mitigate and undo the ways that structural biases have infiltrated biomedicine.

In modern bone biology, the term \"remodeling\" generally refers to internal bone turnover that creates secondary osteons. However, it is also widely used by skeletal biologists, including biological anthropologists as a catch-all term to refer to different skeletal changes. In this review, we investigated how \"remodeling\" is used across topics on skeletal biology in biological anthropology to demonstrate potential problems with such pervasive use of a generalized term.
Using PubMed and Google Scholar, we selected and reviewed 205 articles that use the term remodeling to describe skeletal processes and have anthropological implications. Nine edited volumes were also reviewed as examples of collaborative work by different experts to demonstrate the diverse and extensive use of the term remodeling.
Four general meanings of bone \"remodeling\" were identified, namely, internal turnover, functional adaptation, fracture repair, and growth remodeling. Additionally, remodeling is also used to refer to a broad array of pathological skeletal changes.
Although we initially identified four general meanings of bone remodeling, they are not mutually exclusive and often occur in combination. The term \"remodeling\" has become an extensively used catch-all term to refer to different processes and outcomes of skeletal changes, which inevitably lead to misunderstanding and a loss of information. Such ambiguity and confusion are potentially problematic as the field of biological anthropology becomes increasingly multidisciplinary. Therefore, we advocate for precise, context-specific definitions and explanations of bone remodeling as it continues to be used across disciplines within and beyond biological anthropology.

OBJECTIVE: Topic modeling is a machine learning method that has been used in disciplines like social sciences or the industrial production sector. With topic modeling, a scientist can reduce many articles to a few topics to get an overview of a specific field (e.g., for a scoping review). The objectives of this paper were (1) to demonstrate the applicability of topic modeling to the field of anthropology by a new framework and (2) to present a new method for determining the optimal number of topics used. Subjects and methods: The documents used in this paper were collected from the database IEEE, using the search term \"anthropology\" to obtain a broad range of topics. Topic modeling was performed by Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) method, using R. To determine the optimal candidate of topics (k), a mathematical formula based on the slope of the perplexity curve was established. Results: The application of the framework to the corpus of 518 documents was able to sort all documents into 15 research areas with little time investment by the researcher while using a standard laptop computer. The process of semantic validation was successfully done for all 15 topics. Conclusions: The presented framework with the optimal number of topics k enables scientists in the field of anthropology to perform a scoping review and thus spend less time to manually categorize documents. Topic modeling can be used by researchers in multidisciplinary projects to improve understanding content in a faster way.

Finite element analysis (FEA) is no longer a new technique in the fields of palaeontology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. It is nowadays a well-established technique within the virtual functional-morphology toolkit. However, almost all the works published in these fields have only applied the most basic FEA tools i.e., linear materials in static structural problems. Linear and static approximations are commonly used because they are computationally less expensive, and the error associated with these assumptions can be accepted. Nonetheless, nonlinearities are natural to be used in biomechanical models especially when modelling soft tissues, establish contacts between separated bones or the inclusion of buckling results. The aim of this review is to, firstly, highlight the usefulness of non-linearities and secondly, showcase these FEA tool to researchers that work in functional morphology and biomechanics, as non-linearities can improve their FEA models by widening the possible applications and topics that currently are not used in palaeontology and anthropology.

In Western countries, blood supply agencies encounter impediments in providing blood groups defined as rare or of interest, notably for sub-Saharan African ancestry (SSAA) recipients. To establish warning levels and anticipate future blood needs, an estimate of the current carriers of rare blood groups, both potential patients or donors, is crucial but complex. Indeed, if the strict needs can be estimated in medical terms, the modalities of blood product collection must be considered from an interdisciplinary perspective, at the interface of biological data and social norms. Here, we aim to understand how legal choices and a set of representations of otherness may influence the supply of rare blood for SSAA populations. After examining these issues, considering different norms and limits that govern French society, we compare this data with those of four Western countries facing the same difficulties (United States, United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands). This work began as part as the reflections of Social Lab, an institutional programme created by the French Blood Establishment (EFS). How can we effectively improve the qualitative blood coverage for SSAA populations? There is no unique solution, but there are many more or less effective answers. Comparison across countries reveals a strong influence of the socio-political histories and ethical choices before technical and medical considerations. We consider that an institutional policy is required to resolve recruitment issues of SSAA donors sustainably. Lastly, we introduce a working group called the EFS Social Lab, which aims to set up a monitoring mechanism for donors and societal trends to make blood donation effective.

Within the fields of anthropology and osteoarcheology, human teeth have long been studied to understand the diet, habits, and diseases of past civilizations. However, no complete review has been published to collect and analyze the extensive available data on caries prevalence in European man (Homo sapiens) over time.
In this current study, the two databases, Scopus and Art, Design, and Architecture Collection, were searched using predefined search terms. The literature was systematically reviewed and assessed by two of the authors.
The findings include a significant nonlinear correlation with increasing caries prevalence in European populations from 9000 BC to 1850 AD, for both the number of carious teeth and the number of affected individuals.
Despite the well-established collective belief that caries rates fluctuate between different locations and time and the general view that caries rates have increased from prehistoric times and onwards, this is to our knowledge the first time this relationship has been proven based on published data.

Past histories charting interactions between British healthcare and Aboriginal Australians have tended to be dominated by broad histological themes such as invasion and colonization. While such descriptions have been vital to modernization and truth telling in Australian historical discourse, this paper investigates the nineteenth century through the modern cultural lens of mental health. We reviewed primary documents, including colonial diaries, church sermons, newspaper articles, medical and burial records, letters, government documents, conference speeches and anthropological journals. Findings revealed six overlapping fields which applied British ideas about mental health to Aboriginal Australians during the nineteenth century. They included military invasion, religion, law, psychological systems, lunatic asylums, and anthropology.