Isotopes of strontium, oxygen, and carbon were analyzed in human tooth enamel from two Postclassic sites in the central Peten lakes region, Guatemala, to examine patterns of mobility and diet during a time of social unrest. Excavations at both sites, Ixlu and Zacpeten, have revealed evidence for purposeful dismemberment and interment of individuals. This study examines a possible shrine surrounded by rows of skulls at Ixlu, and a mass grave of comingled individuals interred at Zacpeten. The interments coincide with a period of conflict and warfare between two dominant polities, Itza and Kowoj. The 14 sampled individuals at Ixlu were young males, six of whom isotopically match the Maya Mountains of central Belize/southeastern Peten. At Zacpeten, isotopic signatures of adults and children (n = 68) suggested that many were either local or came from other parts of the Maya lowlands, but not the Maya Mountains. In the Late Postclassic, the Zacpeten individuals were exhumed, defiled, and deposited in a mass grave, probably by Kowojs. Although temporally and geographically related, the Ixlu and Zacpeten burials represent two distinct cases of ritual violence that reflect the tumultuous political landscape of the Postclassic period.

Aims: Safe and effective prescribing in people living with dementia (PLWD) is particularly challenging due to the increased risk of adverse events, polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medications. Cognitive impairment and reliance on caregivers to report symptoms can further complicate the assessment of drug benefits. This case study demonstrates how novel contactless monitoring could address these challenges by enabling remote evaluation of drug effects in PLWD.

Methods: We present the case of a 77-year-old gentleman with late onset Alzheimer’s disease enrolled on the CR&T MINDER cohort study and continuously monitored using the Withing’s Sleep Analyzer. He visited his GP with complaints of insomnia and was subsequently prescribed 15 mg of mirtazapine. He reported immediate beneficial effects, although noted that the drug made him drowsy. We evaluated his sleep by comparing baseline sleep metrics (a 2-week average 1 month before drug administration) with average sleep metrics 2 weeks after starting mirtazapine. Statistical analysis was performed using a paired t-test and a rolling average to assess trends over time.

Results: Calculated rolling average showed reductions in time spent awake overnight and in light sleep, while deep sleep and total sleep time increased. These trends were confirmed by period comparisons. Baseline deep sleep duration (M = 1.19 hrs, SD = 1.02 hrs), and total sleep time (M = 7.16 hrs, SD = 1.03 hrs) significantly increased 2 weeks post mirtazapine (deep sleep: M = 2.63 hrs, SD = 1.03 hrs); total sleep time: M = 7.87 hrs, SD = 0.47 hrs), t(13) = −3.639, p = 0.003, and t(13) = −2.256, p = 0.042. There was also a significant reduction in time spent awake during the night from baseline (M = 1.17 hrs, SD = 0.51 hrs) to 2 weeks post mirtazapine (M = 0.65 hrs, SD = 0.43 hrs), t(13) = 2.616, p = 0.0214.

Conclusion: This case study shows that contactless remote monitoring could be used objectively to evaluate the effects of mirtazapine on sleep in PLWD. Our results demonstrate that improvements in sleep detected by monitoring align with the participants’ reported benefits. These findings suggests continuous remote monitoring could provide valuable, timely insights into drug effects in PLWD, improving clinical decision-making and personalising care.

There is a lack of knowledge on deaths related to police use of force across Canada. Tracking (In)Justice is a research project that is trying to make sense of the life and death outcomes of policing through developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and open-source database using publicly available sources. With a collaborative data governance approach, which includes communities most impacted and families of those killed by police, we document and analyze 745 cases of police-involved deaths when intentional force is used across Canada from 2000 to 2023. The data indicate a steady rise in deaths, in particular shooting deaths, as well as that Black and Indigenous people are over-represented. We conclude with reflections on the ethical complexities of datafication, knowledge development of what we call death data and the challenges of enumerating deaths, pitfalls of official sources, the data needs of communities, and the living nature of the Tracking (In)Justice project.