Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology

It is hypothesized that the reason behind coronavirus severity stems from the unique adaptations in bats, where the virus co-evolved, to accommodate flight which generates large amounts of oxygen free radicals. Oxidative stress, particularly through excess endogenous Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate Hydrogen (NADPH) oxidase production of superoxide, is the single unifying framework for explaining the large range of risk factors for severe coronavirus infection including aging, male gender, African- American race, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. Evidence is presented that death rate as a function of age better resembles the near-exponential rise seen in cancer, where oxidative stress is high, rather than the historical W or U-shaped functions of pandemic or seasonal flu. In addition, consideration of more than 10,000 Center for Disease Control and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania publicly available cases suggested a deviation from an exponential rise in the oldest-old, consistent with lower oxidative stress levels reported in that group. Gender analyses unexpectedly found male-to-female risk of mortality to be an inverted U-shaped function peaking at nearly 2.5 times from age 30 to 50 and may reverse to half the female risk at the oldest ages, providing a good fit to known oxidative stress gender differences across the lifespan. Race data were consistent with higher mortality from COVID-19 and higher oxidative stress levels in African Americans. It is argued pre-existing conditions that increase risk all share high oxidative stress levels while, intriguingly, the possibly protective Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Lupus have low levels of NADPH oxidase-derived oxygen free radicals. Strategies for prevention and treatment that follow from the theory are briefly covered including N-acetyl cysteine in older men to restore glutathione levels to more youthful values and especially exciting, pursuing the inhibition of NADPH oxidases not only with well-known melatonin but also with less known compounds such as the naturally occurring apocynin, which is also inexpensive and readily available.

Over the past 20 years numerous new trees of recent human populations are published extensively but little attention has been paid to formal phylogenetic synthesis. We utilized the “matrix representation with parsimony” (MRP) method to infer a composite phylogeny (supertree) of recent human populations, supported 257 genetic/genomic, also as linguistic, phylogenetic trees and 44 admixture plots from 200 published studies (1990–2014). The resulting supertree topology includes the foremost basal position of S African Khoisan followed by C African Pygmies and therefore the paraphyletic section of all other sub-Saharan peoples. The sub-Saharan African section is basal to the monophyletic clade consisting of the N African–W Eurasian assemblage and therefore the consistently monophyletic Eastern superclade (Sahul–Oceanian, E Asian and Beringian–American peoples). This topology, dominated by genetic data, is well-resolved and robust to parameter set changes, with a couple of unstable areas (e.g., West Eurasia, Sahul–Melanesia) reflecting the prevailing phylogenetic controversies. a couple of populations were identified as highly unstable “wildcard taxa” (e.g. Andamanese, Malagasy). The linguistic classification fits rather poorly on the supertreetopology, supporting a view that direct coevolution between genes and languages is way from universal.

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological and knowledge sciences (including ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physiography , and atmospheric science) to the study of the environment, and therefore the solution of environmental problems. ecology emerged from the fields of explanation and medicine during the Enlightenment.[1] Today it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems

Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology or palæontology (/Ë?peɪliÉ?nË?tÉ?lÉ?dÊ?i, Ë?pæli-, -É?n-/), is that the scientific study of life that existed before , and sometimes including, the beginning of the Holocene (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study interactions with one another and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations are documented as far back because the 5th century BCE. The science became established within the 18th century as a results of Georges Cuvier's work on anatomy , and developed rapidly within the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιÏ?ς, palaios, "old, ancient", á½?ν, on (gen. ontos), "being, creature", and λÏ?γος, logos, "speech, thought, study".

Cranial dimensions and cranial indices are considered as simplest and most efficient way to indicate facial differences and age variations. Cranial morphology and dimensions are used to evaluate various aspects of growth and development thus helping in population differentiation.

Aim: the study is to investigate the craniometrical patterns in the Nigerian population based on three dimensional computed tomographic data, with the objectives of determining the age of individuals in the eastern part of Nigeria as well as determining if the skull of individual varies with age using computed tomography.

Methodology: involves a descriptive study design with age determined using standard ageing techniques. 150 dry adult human skulls cases (male and female both) constituted the material for the present study between age group of 25-60 years. Data were scanned in the radiology department and the CT data were processed in a computer workstation at the department. The CT scan acquisition was performed with 1.5mm slice thickness and reconstruction was done with 1.0 m 2 m slice thickness. All the CT data were recorded using DICOM 3.0 as a medical image file format into CD-ROM. The segmentation techniques were used to identify the region of interest of the computed tomography image based on Hounsfield unit. The selected region was calculated into 3-D modem based on the traditional definition with the modification into 3D model. The anatomical landmarks in craniometrics study were: Glabella (GL), Bregma (BR), Opisthocranium (OPC), Nasion (NA), Basion (BA). The measurements were interpreted using statistical analysis and reported in form of comparism of the mean values and mean difference, standard deviation, and confidence interval in respect to the various landmarks. Analysis of variance was utilized with p-value 0.005 alpha level of significant.

Result: the total number of sample for each landmark group is 1050 which covers the range value of 6 with a minimum number 1 and maximum number 7. The total sum of all Landmarks d is 4,200. The mean statistics of the seven groups is 4.00 with standard error of 0.62. The total number of length is 1050 with range of 119. The length attracts the minimum and maximum value of 80 and 199 with total sum of 132282. The mean statistics is 125.98 with standard error of 0.740.