Expression of miRNA might define disease states in oesophageal epithelium. Dysregulation of specific miRNAs could contribute to metaplastic and neoplastic processes in the oesophageal mucosa.

MiR-148a sensitized chemotherapy-sensitive oesophageal cancer cell lines to cisplatin and, to a lesser extent, to 5-flurouracil and attenuated resistance in chemotherapy-resistant variants. Further experimental and clinical studies to investigate the exact mechanisms involved are warranted.

The site of Klasies River Mouth (KRM) in South Africa has produced a small sample of early Upper Pleistocene hominid remains that have been a focus for discussions of the origins of modern humans. Despite certain primitive characteristics exhibited by these fossils, proponents of a single recent origin have attributed them to early modern humans. Critics of this hypothesis have emphasized the significance of the archaic features evident in this sample, including the absence of pronounced chins among the mandibular specimens. This study compares the size range and chin morphology exhibited by the KRM mandibles with that of Neandertals, Upper Pleistocene humans, and recent humans. The extreme sexual dimorphism documented among the KRM fossils reflects the presence of a very small individual, and previous efforts to classify the KRM sample as archaic on the basis of their robusticity have failed to address the significance of this diminutive hominid. While each KRM fossil falls within the 95% envelope of variability established for chin development in a comparative modern sample, a similarly low frequency of pronounced chins is very unlikely to be found in any recent human population. The morphological pattern of the KRM mandibles is clearly distinct from that of Neandertals and of recent humans.

Barrett's esophagus is a premalignant condition caused by gastroesophageal reflux. Once developed, it can progress through varying grades of dysplasia to esophageal adenocarcinoma. Whilst it is well accepted that Barrett's esophagus is caused by gastroesophageal reflux, the molecular mechanisms of its pathogenesis and progression to cancer remain unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short segments of RNA that have been shown to control the expression of many human genes. They have been implicated in most cellular processes, and the role of miRNAs in disease development is becoming increasingly evident. Understanding altered miRNA expression is likely to help unravel the molecular mechanisms that underpin the development of Barrett's esophagus and its progression to cancer.

Galanin receptor mRNA and protein are expressed in mouse pancreas, with GALR3 mRNA predominating. GALR3 antagonism reduced the severity of AP whereas GALR2 antagonism was less effective. GALR3 is a potential target for treatment of AP.

No abstract

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) is beginning to fulfill the whole promise of Darwinian insight through its extension of evolutionary understanding from the biological domain to include cultural information evolution. Several decades of important foundation-laying work took a social Darwinist approach and exhibited ecologically-deterministic elements. This is not the case for more recent developments to the evolutionary study of culture, which emphasize non-Darwinian processes such as self-organization, potentiality, and epigenetic change. Smith et al.: Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Cliodynamics 9:2 (2018) 85 "culture change," we believe that is misleading, for "change" need not be cumulative, adaptive, and open-ended. 1 Critiques of evolutionary models of culture have a long history in the Americanist anthropological tradition (Carneiro 2003; Mace 2014; Perry and Mace 2010), and today there remains question about the appropriateness of the "analogy" between cultural and biological evolution (Claidière and André 2011). While cultural evolution differs from biological evolution, cultural evolution is not merely analogous to biological evolution, it is a genuine evolutionary process, albeit one that uses different information channels, with different properties. Note that while some view the central criterion of evolution to be replication with variation and selection (e.g. Hull et al. 2001), this is but one form of evolution. Evolution can also occur through communal exchange and self-organization (Gabora 2013; Vetsigian 2006) and through context-driven actualization of potential (Gabora 2005, 2006) (for specific and general discussions of this topic see Kopps et al. 2015 and Gabora and Aerts 2002, respectively; see also Appendix 1). This approach is sometimes referred to as Self-Other Reorganization because it involves both interactions within self-organizing structures and interactions between them. We emphasize that for a process to be evolutionary (whether it be Darwinian evolution or not), change must occur on the basis of a fitness function or an environment that confers constraints and affordances. If not, i.e., if change is random, it is not due to evolution but to processes such as drift (i.e., variation in the relative frequency of different genotypes in a small population owing to the chance disappearance of particular genes as individuals die or do not reproduce). Cultural evolution is fueled by the generation of and reflection on creative ideas, which might exist not in the form of a collection of explicitly actualized variants as is required for biological evolution, but in a state of potentiality (Gabora 2017). 2 If an idea in a state of potentiality is considered with respect to one context it evolves one way, whereas if considered with respect to another context it evolves another way; there are no variants that get actualized and selected amongst. The mathematical description of evolution through variation and selection is very

The site of Klasies River Mouth (KRM) in South Africa has produced a small sample of early Upper Pleistocene hominid remains that have been a focus for discussions of the origins of modern humans. Despite certain primitive characteristics exhibited by these fossils, proponents of a single recent origin have attributed them to early modern humans. Critics of this hypothesis have emphasized the significance of the archaic features evident in this sample, including the absence of pronounced chins among the mandibular specimens. This study compares the size range and chin morphology exhibited by the KRM mandibles with that of Neandertals, Upper Pleistocene humans, and recent humans. The extreme sexual dimorphism documented among the KRM fossils reflects the presence of a very small individual, and previous efforts to classify the KRM sample as archaic on the basis of their robusticity have failed to address the significance of this diminutive hominid. While each KRM fossil falls within the 95% envelope of variability established for chin development in a comparative modern sample, a similarly low frequency of pronounced chins is very unlikely to be found in any recent human population. The morphological pattern of the KRM mandibles is clearly distinct from that of Neandertals and of recent humans.