Narrow Hips Research Articles

Correlates of normal and decreased HDL cholesterol levels in type 2 diabetes: a cohort-based cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe literature describes an inverse association between the values of triglyceride (TG) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). This survey was designed to exhibit the features of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who display this inverse association and identify potential contributing factors to having normal HDL-C values.MethodsA total of 6127 persons with T2D were assigned to the present survey. Demographic features and clinical status data were compared between subjects with a substantial inverse association of TG and HDL-C and those without. Logistic regressions were performed to ascertain the role of different factors related to normal HDL-C. Moreover, the restricted cubic spline (RCS) functions were conducted to scrutinize the underlying relationships between the studied variables and low HDL-C levels.ResultsPatients with high TG (150 ≤ TG < 400) compared to patients with normal TG (TG < 150) were less likely to have normal HDL-C. Younger age, narrow hip, lower levels of blood pressure, two-hour postprandial glucose (2hPP), fasting blood sugar (FBS), hemoglobinA1C (HbA1C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol, and non-HDL-C, higher atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), and TG/HDL-C ratio correlate with an inverse connection between the values of HDL-C and TG (all P < 0.05). Age greater than 65 years (odds ratio (OR) 1.260, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.124-1.413) had a positive association, whereas female sex (OR 0.467, CI 0.416-0.523) , 25 kg/m2 < body mass index (BMI) (OR 0.786, CI 0.691-0.894), and higher serum creatinine levels (OR 0.481, CI 0.372-0.621) had an inverse association with having normal HDL-C.ConclusionsPatients with an inverse connection between TG and HDL-C values had considerably different anthropometric features, lipid profiles, and glucose indices compared to those without this relationship. Furthermore, patients who aged less than 65 years, had female gender, BMI more than 25 kg/m2, and higher serum creatinine levels were less likely to exhibit normal HDL-C levels.

Anthropometric profiles and body composition of male runners at different distances

Anthropometric parameters are crucial prerequisite to achieve success in professional running sports. However, it is not clear how these parameters are relevant for athletes performing on a less demanding sport level as academic competitions. To help coaches and selectors working on this level, we have explored anthropometric variables and body composition in 68 academic athletes: 26 sprinters, 22 middle distance runners, and 20 long distance runners. Sprinters have a more massive body shape, shorter lower legs in relation to the length of the thigh, broader shoulders and narrower hips, greater musculature and cellular mass. A slender figure, a longer shin, and the greatest subcutaneous fat and extracellular mass characterize long-distance runners. Middle-distance runners are the slimmest, and have a narrow trunk and little subcutaneous fat. Sprinters and long-distance runners are mesomorphic, while middle-distance runners present more mixed mesomorph-ectomorph type. The principal component analysis highlighted the importance of the overall size of the body, limbs musculature and the length of the lower limb together with its segments, and also body fatness. This approach emphasized the morphological distinctiveness of runners at particular distances and allows the use of somatic features as predictors of running performance.

Designing for Curves

Designing for Curves

Discerning excellence from mediocrity in swimming: New insights using Bayesian quantile regression

Purpose: Previous research has captured point estimates for population means of somatic variables associated with swimming speed across strokes, but have not determined if predictors of swimming speed operate the same at the upper tails of the distribution (τ = 0.9) as they do at the median levels (τ = 0.5) and lower levels (τ = 0.1). Method: Three hundred sixty-three competitive-level swimmers (male [n = 202]; female [n = 161]) participated in the study. To identify key somatic variables associated with 100-m swimming across and between strokes controlling for age, we used a Bayesian allometric quantile regression model, refined using Bayes Factors and Leave-one-out cross validation. Results: High probabilities (>99%) were found for arm-span, seated-height and shoulder-breadth being the strongest somatic predictors across strokes. For individual strokes, Bayesian quantile regression demonstrated that the relative importance of predictors differs across quantiles. For swimmers in the 0.9 quartile, shoulder-breadth is a more important than height for front-crawl, wide shoulders are important for breaststroke swimmers but can be detrimental when combined with narrow hips, seated-height and hip-width are important for backstroke swimming speed, and calf girth for butterfly. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of considering key somatic variables for talent identification in swimming and ensure young swimmers focus on strokes compatible with their somatic structure. The most important new insight is that predictors differ for the best swimmers compared to average or poorer swimmers. This has implications beyond swimming, pointing to the importance of considering the upper tails of distributions in performance and talent identification contexts.

Morphometric Evaluation of Phenotypic Groups of Creole Cattle of Southern Ecuador

The breeding of creole cattle from the southern region of Ecuador, also known as Criollo Lojano, is a source of economic support and work for the communities located in the remote areas of the Andes mountains in this region. These cattle are grouped into four biotypes based on their phenotypic characteristics: Negro Lojano, Encerado, Colorado, and Cajamarca or Pintado. This study analyzes the morphometric variability of these creole cattle using least squares means (LSM) and restricted maximum likelihood Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) variance components. The evaluation parameters used to characterize these cattle were live weight plus 15 morphometric characteristics and nine morphometric indexes. The measurements came from 151 adult animals (28 male and 123 females). With the exception of Height at Withers (P = 0.06), the other morphometric characteristics do not show significant difference among these creole biotypes. Sexual dimorphism was found in live weight, thoracic circumference, height at withers, chest width, length of thorax, length of body, depth of thorax, depth of abdomen, length of head, and length of horns (P &lt; 0.05). The adult Creole Lojano has an average live weight of 288 ± 12.9 kg (mean ± standard error), The Cephalic index is 45.6, the Corporal index is 115.9, the Pelvic index is 90.5, the Thoracic index is 58.3, the Proportionality index is 62.6, the Thoracic Capacity index is 2.1, the Lower Leg–Thoracic index is 9.9, the Transverse Pelvic index is 34.7, and the Pelvic Length index is 38.4. This creole bovine breed presents 4 biotypes that are similar; there are differences in the analysis with respect to sex (males are higher in 10 of the 16 characteristics analyzed); and on the basis of the indexes, this animal is small, has a triangular head, is longilinear with a long and narrow hip. It is a dual-purpose milk type with the exception of the Colorado biotype which is a dual purpose meat type.

Early Detection of Narrow hip Size through the Measurement of the right foot size of third Trimester Pregnant Women and the effects on Complexity of Labor Process

Early Detection of Narrow hip Size through the Measurement of the right foot size of third Trimester Pregnant Women and the effects on Complexity of Labor Process

Basic Anthropometric Measures in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients and Individually Sex- and Age-Matched Controls from the General Population.

We compared weight, height, waist and hip circumferences (hip), body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-hip ratio in acute myocardial infarction (MI) patients and individually sex- and age-matched control subjects from the general population in the catchment area of the patients and predicted the risk of MI status by these basic anthropometric measures. The study cohort comprised 748 patients ≤80 years of age with acute MI from a major Swedish cardiac center and their individually sex- and age-matched controls. The analyses were stratified for sex and age (≤65/≥66 years). Risk of MI was assessed by conditional logistic regression. A narrow hip in men ≥66 years was the single strongest risk factor of MI among the anthropometric measures. The combination of hip and weight was particularly efficient in discriminating men ≥66 years with MI from their controls (area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve = 0.82). In men ≤65 years, the best combination was hip, BMI, and height (AUROC = 0.79). In women ≥66 years, the best discriminatory model contained only waist-to-hip ratio (AUROC = 0.67), whereas in women ≤65 years, the best combination was hip and BMI (AUROC = 0.68). A narrow hip reasonably reflects small gluteal muscles. This finding might suggest an association between MI and sarcopenia, possibly related to deficiencies in physical activity and nutrition.

1973, and: Outside Arcadia, and: Detasseling

1973, and: Outside Arcadia, and: Detasseling Jennifer Quinlan (bio) 1973 I dislike the adults who come to the Halloween party, hysterical in their assumed identities. The living room contains their drunken movements, from the couch, I watch ignored.My mother is twenty-six. My father is twenty-five. They move among the throng of ghoulsdancing far from each other & closer to others. They stare at each other from their distances. It feels heavy in the autumn night, like a body, or itscoffin. I feel a death and wonder why they want it.A television show teaches me how to subtract. It has to do with cookies. There are so many cookies and then there are fewer. I want all of the cookies. My mother digs through the sandbox in the morning & I helpher. We sift through the cat shit and grains looking for herwatch.We listen for its ticking & do not discuss how it flew fromher arm to be buried here. The television show also taught me about time. It changes things. [End Page 40] Outside Arcadia I was born another daughter in afamily overripe with girls, our Iowafarm begged for the boys I denied it. I was born a sickly runt amidstbellowing cattle we called home. I was born among a clutch of chickenscackling and cracking corn with wornbeaks until their heads were twisted. I was born an unhappiness. I was born with a gift for vanishing andvapor early to a woman with eyesas empty as the endless sky. I was born an insignificant weed in the fieldof my father's producing mind. I was born a pair of pedal pushersmy boyfriend peeled from mybody tending tenderly to myflesh and our daughter's wild spiritimplanted a tick engorging itself onmy bloodbaby emerging. You'll never outlive this sinmy father whispered. Hiswords a weight stunting mygrowth. [End Page 41] Detasseling At fourteen, it was a good job paying $10 an hourbut how to put a price on the way corn leaves can cutthe long sleeves and green rubber kitchen gloves my only protectionthe metal of the machine's bucket bruising my narrow hips. Bruiseshis thick thumbs would press into at nightwhen not even exhaustion kept me from him.He was the landlord's son who had spent the day in a field making hay."You smell like summer," he said that first night as he pulled me into the shadows. Everything interesting to me that summer involved himin the dark cool grass of the night. I never saw him otherwise.I wrapped my long legs around him trying that motion for the first timeI wanted to bury him into me or set something loosewith our sun-soaked bodies and yet we were careful with each other. We hardly spoke.That was before I understood how overripe desire can become.One of our last nights, it began to rain."It's washing it all away," he said, "as though it never happened." [End Page 42] Jennifer Quinlan Jennifer Quinlan is a poet and librarian living in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she works at St. Cloud State University. This is her first publication. Copyright © 2018 University of Nebraska Press

Sport-specific musculoskeletal growth and postural control in female artistic gymnasts: a 12 month cohort study

Female gymnasts have been evidenced to experience sport-specific growth, of which broad shoulders and narrow hips are common characteristics. In addition to being a central component of handstand performance, postural control mechanisms, including whole-body and lumbo-pelvic stability, have been identified as risk factors for overuse spinal pathology. The study aimed to develop a fundamental understanding of musculoskeletal growth and postural control responses of female artistic gymnasts in order to extend longitudinal insights into overuse spinal pathology risk. Whole-body anthropometric measures were collected for 12 competitive female gymnasts (age at recruitment: nine to 15 years) at three time points across a 12 month period. Musculoskeletal growth was partially defined as the rate of bicristal-to-biacromial breadth ratio development, and informed shoulder- and pelvis-dominant growth sub-groups. Kinematic and kinetic indicators of postural control were determined for a total of 700 handstand trials. The shoulder-dominant (gymnastics-specific) growth group was found to have significantly greater biomechanical risk for general stability (p < 0.001) than the pelvis-dominant group. Significantly greater lumbo-pelvic risk was demonstrated for the pelvis-dominant group (p < 0.001). Extended idiosyncratic examination of proportional sport-specific growth measures alongside multi-faceted risk monitoring was advocated for the effective development of future overuse pathology prevention protocols.

We're on a road to nowhere: Culture and adaptation to the environment are driving human evolution, but the destination of this journey is unpredictable.

It is tempting to believe that humans, owing to their technological prowess, have elevated themselves above the laws of biology and escaped natural selection. Indeed, some think that humans have stopped evolving at all. Another view holds that Homo sapiens has not isolated itself from the influences of the physical and biological world but that our species is just a special, extreme case of niche constructors. This view is based on the so‐called Niche Construction Theory, a development within evolutionary biology to describe how humans—and many other organisms—modify their environment—or niche—in a way that alters environmental pressures and therefore natural selection. Thus, rather adapting to a pre‐existing environment, “organisms drive environmental change and organism‐modified environments subsequently select organisms” (https://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/niche/niche-construction-and-evolution/) (Box 1). ### Culture‐driven evolution “[All] organisms adapt to their environment, and in humans much of our environment is defined by our culture. Hence, cultural change can actually spur on adaptive evolution in humans”, wrote evolutionary biologist Alan Templeton at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA. [1]. Following this argument, culture, social learning and technology have not replaced biological adaptation. Rather, human evolution is driven by the environmental conditions we created ourselves through culture, a process that has been accelerating since the beginning of agriculture and urban civilization. In other words, cultural niche construction is a major cause of recent human evolution. However, there are other factors than natural selection, such as genetic drift and gene flow, that influence human evolution [1]. Nonetheless, even the effects of these random, non‐adaptive forces on human genetic variation are somehow altered by cultural trends, namely increased urbanization and greater mobility. As a consequence, drift is diminishing and gene flow is increasing, a process that would eventually culminate into a single “species‐wide” gene pool characterized by high levels of genetic variation. > [C]ulture, …

Abstract: Augmentation Gluteoplasty - the XYZ Technique

INTRODUCTION: A woman with small breasts but proportionate waist and hips still has a feminine body, but one with flat buttocks and large shoulders or narrow hips will never have a totally feminine body, regardless of how beautiful her breasts are. So, the most important detail of a feminine body is the balance of its contour. PURPOSE: The objective of this work is to share our experience performing the XYZ technique for buttocks enhancement described by Raul Gonzales, in 2004. With this technique we can easily insert an implant into the gluteus maximus with no risk of sciatic nerve compression and no limitations in the size of implant. METHODS/TECHNIQUES: The incision is done directly over the intergluteal crease, preserving the sacral cutaneous ligament. After the skin drawing, of an inverted heart, the subcutaneous tissue is undermined just over the muscle fascia till the end of the drawing. Next step is a 6 cm muscle incision in the same direction of the muscle fibers. The undermining should split the muscle at the middle, and the same amount of muscle should be left in front of and behind the implant. The point X is found introducing a finger into the muscle incision 2–3 cm deeper. This is half of the thickness of the muscle and this is our plane of undermining. Point Y is in the iliac crest 5 cm beyond the upper-posterior iliac spine and is our superior limit of undermining. The point Z, the lower limit of the undermining, is reached rotating the underminer from point Y towards the femur trochanter. Usually this pocket is enough to accept relatively large round implants as well as 350 or 400 cc in a medium-sized patient. Once the implants are placed into the pockets the incision is closed from the muscle fascia till the skin, avoiding communication between the intramuscular pocket and the supra-facial subcutaneous one, to avoid seroma formation. RESULTS: We have been using this technique routinely since 2006 in more than 300 patients. CONCLUSION: With this technique we can easily find the 3 stop points of the undermining to insert an implant into the gluteus maximus avoiding the most common complication: the palpable implant for a too shallow pocket in the lateral areas.

Raven Hair

Raven Hair Julie C. Day (bio) Spring You were the wolf, the witch, the unnamed monster in the woods. Instead of blood offerings, the townspeople left you woven baskets full of waxy red fruit. I left myself: red cape and fiery virgin blood. I was the one who lifted my hand and knocked. I had black hair, dark as a raven, and the dress my mother had sewn for me. You saw me just the same: my already curving hips, my waiting breasts. My wolf, my witch, my monster: you had yellowed teeth, crooked, with one pointed canine peeking out over your lip. Your clothes were white, crusty, and full of angry stains. You were pretty even so with your salt-and-pepper hair, the sunrise of wrinkles radiating from both eyes. Gray eyes, of course, except on your soulless days when your stare was as blue as an ice-bound ocean. On those days you begged me to be silent, breathless, mute. Trapped with all my unspoken words, I never felt quiet when I was with you. Summer Our bedroom was on the second floor. Next to it was your den, carpeted in gray with carefully whitened walls and a scratched closet door you told me not to open. "It's mine," you said. "A closed door means keep out." Some days the door's metal handle shook like a cornered snake. Other days it was silent. On your ice-blue days you roamed the woods while I watched from our bedroom window. Step after step, you bent to examine the forest's undergrowth, searching for the waxy white stalks and scaly leaves of your favorite corpse flower, the Indian pipe. Your favorite was just as elusive as you. I watched until your bent back disappeared into the trees, and then if the closet handle was silent, I stole into your den. You kept unspooled rolls of 8 mm film in dark green garbage bags stacked against the wall. Your film lacked the black glossy sheen of store-bought. Orangish-brown and subtly dimpled, each length contained a string of tangled images: a felt puppet on a twig broom, a seemingly unending line of girls with freckles or milky-tea skin and sharp-toothed smiles. And that one repeated image—a woman with wolf-grey hair—not you. Words were printed in precise block letters on the bottom of each frame of film, so small I couldn't yet read them. The lettering, I could tell, [End Page 41] took hours, a magnifying glass, a steady hand. It was fairytale time. I pretended the lettering, not the film, was your daytime passion. Your evening passions were easier to ken. Your evenings were spent with me. ________ I took my time, silent, lips soft against your stomach. Tangled sheets. My hands clutched your narrow hips, then slipped higher until I felt the outer edges of your breasts. I tasted the dampness trickling from between your thighs, salt and musk. Like 8 mm film, my movements took sixteen frames one slow second at a time. Afterwards, you held pieces of your special brown-orange film up to our bedside light, sharing your work. Each cell was marked, scratched, the original image buried somewhere underneath. Your art, you told me, was about transformation. Even then I made mistakes. Pointed out a slash mark, an odd corner of red. Left the ghost of a fingerprint behind. "Love me," I cried, finally deciphering the film's tiny words. The long L and five smaller letters suddenly clear. Yet another transformation: your gray eyes glared, now ice-bound blue. Head bowed, I whispered my own special words: sorry and sorry again while your head nodded its agreement. I was never as sorry as when I lived with you. ________ My fairytale monster. My lover. My witch. As with all witches, the kitchen was your domain: bones and gristle, amber syrup clinging to your lips, green herbs disfigured across the chopping board. On late afternoons heat and flames rose up against the slaughtered flesh. I never asked you where our meat came from, the brown-and-pink flesh so tender as it fell from the bone...

An anthropometric data bank for the Iranian working population with ethnic diversity

This study constructed an anthropometric data bank for the Iranian working population. In total, thirty-seven body dimensions were measured among 3720 Iranian workers with different ethnicities (3000 male and 720 female; aged 20–60 years). Statistical analysis revealed significant differences for most of body dimensions among the ethnical groups. Moreover, the authors compared Iranian anthropometric characteristics with those of four Asian populations: Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Overall, 16 body dimensions for the five Asian populations were selected and compared. Accordingly, different morphological characteristics of these five populations were observed. The Iranian population showed wide shoulders and hips and long legs; the Chinese population showed narrow hips and shoulders and a short height relative to the other populations. The Korean sample recorded moderate body size comparing the other populations. The Taiwanese had large hands, relatively wide shoulders and short upper limbs. These differences in population dimensions should be taken into consideration for product and process design when expanding regional markets.

Fearless

Fearless Janis Hubschman (bio) We walked our bikes up the long path to Chiero’s Pizza in Marina di Castagneto, three fit American women, in our mid-forties, dressed in skintight cycling kits. Peggy was in the lead, red hair radiating from her silver helmet. I struggled to keep up, while Radha lagged behind, purring Italian with Carlo, our guide. We propped our bikes against a split rail fence and sat down at a picnic table shaded by a vine-covered pergola. “Only dogs eat outside in this weather,” Peggy said, fanning herself. She’d been in some kind of a snit ever since we’d left Bolgheri Castle. If I’d had a tail, I’d have wagged it, I was so relieved to get off the bike and out of the sun. I checked to see how Radha was taking Peggy’s mood. She and Carlo sat across from us. Radha smiled dreamily, listening perhaps to the calliope music wafting from the carnival across the road. The Ferris wheel, just visible above the tree line, seemed unreachable. The plump, middle-aged proprietor appeared with menus. Her hair was dyed an unnatural shade of red. Carlo introduced her as Daniella, his friend. He seemed to know a lot of people in Tuscany. He was a travel photographer who, between assignments, helped the local bicycle touring company that was run by a retired American racer. We were his first solo gig. Radha and Carlo ordered first. I went next, mangling the pronunciation. “Cosa?” Daniella said. She mimed puzzlement: shrugging her round shoulders, eyes opened wide, mouth drawn downward. Grimacing, I repeated my order in English. “I always speak the language of the country where I am traveling,” Daniella said. “Good for you,” Peggy said, thrusting her menu over her shoulder. “I’ll have the Margherita, please.” Daniella turned to go, but Carlo asked her to wait for him. As he struggled to get up from the picnic table, she stole a glance at Radha. Was she measuring her own sallow fleshiness against [End Page 3] Radha’s flawless, brown skin and voluptuous curves as I’d seen other women do, as I’d done myself? In the bike shop I managed, I was often mistaken for a teenage boy with my narrow hips and cropped, bleached hair. Carlo and Daniella walked off toward the kitchen, and Peggy leaned in and spoke in a low tone. “Is it just me, or was today’s ride bullshit?” Radha raised her eyebrows. “Define bullshit.” “I didn’t break down my bike and haul it across the Atlantic for a touristy ride to a castle,” Peggy said. “Did you, Julia?” I shook my head, but I couldn’t say with any certainty why I’d gone to so much trouble. I’d disassembled and rebuilt two bikes—my own and Radha’s. On my first night in Italy, I’d woken at 2:00 a.m., convinced that both Anders and my mother would die. I couldn’t breathe and fled the hotel room. My nightshirt clung to my skin as I paced on the second-story walkway under the yellow bug lights. Two months earlier, I’d moved my mother, against her will, into a nursing home. “You had no choice,” Anders reassured me. When I neglected to visit her, he didn’t judge. Instead, he’d encouraged me to travel, even though only eight months had elapsed since his final cancer treatment, even though it meant he’d be alone. In June, our only child had left for her junior year in Prague. Why had he urged me to go? I became aware of the smell of cigarettes, and saw Fausto, the hotel owner’s son—a coarse-featured man in his early thirties—standing half in shadow on the sidewalk below, watching me. His louche gaze stilled my racing thoughts, pinned me in place. “Obviously,” Peggy was saying, “Carlo thinks we’re novices looking for a tea party.” “He did compliment me on my efficient pedal stroke,” I said with an eye roll. Only Radha laughed, but we’d all suffered the condescension of male cyclists. Our tight-knit female cycling...

The anthropometric characteristics of futsal players compared with professional soccer players

PurposeThe aim of the study was to compare the morphological characteristics of experienced futsal players with professional soccer players.MethodsThe research sample included 22 university futsal players and 22 professional soccer players. Parameters including body height and mass, skinfold thicknesses of the trunk and extremities, lower limb length, trunk width, humerus and femur bone breadths, and the circumferences of the chest, hips, thighs, and calves were used to calculate various somatic indices. Somatotyping was performed using the Heath–Carter method. Differences in the characteristics between the futsal and soccer players were analyzed using Student’s t test. Intragroup analysis was also performed on futsal players depending on player position and compared with the arithmetic means and standard deviations of all variables of the entire sample.ResultsCompared with their soccer-playing peers, the futsal players were shorter, weighed less, had shorter lower limbs, narrower hips, and smaller hip circumference and bone breadth values. In contrast, higher levels of body fat and endomorphy were noted in this group. The proportion of mesomorphs and ectomorphs were similar in both groups. Futsal goalkeepers were differentiated by greater subcutaneous adiposity and body mass. Defenders had the slimmest body shape, with relatively narrower shoulders and hips, smaller bone breadths, and lower levels of adiposity. The body build of wingers was slightly larger. Pivoters were characterized by greater body height and larger values for the characteristics measuring the lateral trunk dimensions.ConclusionsThe observed morphological differences between futsal and soccer players were mainly in body height and height-associated characteristics. This indicates that no specialized approach in futsal recruitment is currently used. This points to the need to develop a specialized approach in the player recruitment stage, as the tactical and technical constructs of futsal set the game apart from other indoor soccer games, finding that futsal players share a number of morphological similarities with handball players.

A systematic review of the impact of including both waist and hip circumference in risk models for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and mortality

Both a larger waist and narrow hips are associated with heightened risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and premature mortality. We review the risk of these outcomes for levels of waist and hip circumferences when terms for both anthropometric measures were included in regression models. MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched (last updated July 2012) for studies reporting the association with the outcomes mentioned earlier for both waist and hip circumferences (unadjusted and with both terms included in the model). Ten studies reported the association between hip circumference and death and/or disease outcomes both unadjusted and adjusted for waist circumference. Five studies reported the risk associated with waist circumference both unadjusted and adjusted for hip circumference. With the exception of one study of venous thromboembolism, the full strength of the association between either waist circumference or hip circumference with morbidity and/or mortality was only apparent when terms for both anthropometric measures were included in regression models. Without accounting for the protective effect of hip circumference, the effect of obesity on risk of death and disease may be seriously underestimated. Considered together (but not as a ratio measure), waist and hip circumference may improve risk prediction models for cardiovascular disease and other outcomes.

P1-487 Combined influence of physical activity and Hip circumference on all-cause mortality

IntroductionHip circumference has been shown to be inversely associated with mortality. Reduced femoral fat or muscle atrophy in the gluteofemoral region in those with narrow hips has been proposed as...

Evulvalution: The Portrayal of Women's External Genitalia and Physique across Time and the Current Barbie Doll Ideals

Media images of the female body commonly represent reigning appearance ideals of the era in which they are published. To date, limited documentation of the genital appearance ideals in mainstream media exists. Analysis 1 sought to describe genital appearance ideals (i.e., mons pubis and labia majora visibility, labia minora size and color, and pubic hair style) and general physique ideals (i.e., hip, waist, and bust size, height, weight, and body mass index [BMI]) across time based on 647 Playboy Magazine centerfolds published between 1953 and 2007. Analysis 2 focused exclusively on the genital appearance ideals embodied by models in 185 Playboy photographs published between 2007 and 2008. Taken together, results suggest the perpetuation of a “Barbie Doll” ideal characterized by a low BMI, narrow hips, a prominent bust, and hairless, undefined genitalia resembling those of a prepubescent female.

Gerard Dillon: Nationalism, Homosexuality, and the Modern Irish Artist

Gerard Dillon: Nationalism, Homosexuality, and the Modern Irish Artist* Riann Coulter (bio) In Self-contained flat, ca. 1955 (cover image), the Northern Irish artist Gerard Dillon presents himself inhabiting a domestic space of his own creation. Depicting the basement flat of his sister's house in London, where he lived from 1945 to 1963, the painting is divided into three sections, each featuring a self-portrait. The images of Dillon entering the living room and in the garden represent the public narrative of daily life, while the third portrait is located in the private realm of the bedroom. Dressed in the knitted sweater and loose trousers adopted from the west of Ireland fishermen, the central figure provides a distinct contrast to the self-consciously modern image in the foreground, whose green face and bohemian dress mark him as other. 1 The central figure enters a room containing Dillon's decorator tools, canvases, and a statue of the Madonna, while the self-portrait in the foreground inhabits a space dominated by paintings and a sleeping nude (back cover). 2 This sleeping figure can be related to the female nude in Paul Gauguin's Manao Tupapau, [End Page 63] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Paul Gauguin, Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Watching), 1892, oil on burlap mounted on canvas, 72.4 x 97.5 cm, Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. [End Page 64] 1892 (fig. 1), yet the broad shoulders and narrow hips make its gender ambiguous. If the central figure represents Dillon's public persona as artist and tradesman—and perhaps also, through the Madonna and fisherman garb, suggests his Irish Catholic roots—the portrait in the foreground can be read as his self-identification as a modern artist and a gay man. To date, Dillon's sexuality has been either ignored or underplayed and seldom related to his paintings. In the only monograph on the artist, James White tentatively suggests that Dillon's sexuality influenced his work, but he also attempts to minimize that influence by claiming that "such was his religious feeling that although he was drawn to people of that type, if he once had an encounter I believe that it never occurred again." 3 In contrast to White's speculations, the Belfast author Gerard Keenan, who knew Dillon in London, insists that he was "a very well-adjusted homosexual" unburdened by the censure that his Catholic upbringing imposed on homosexuality. 4 However, the artist's nephew, Martin Dillon, recalls that after his uncle's death he found a diary entry describing a homosexual encounter with a sense of guilt and concludes, "I think he had it there for people in the future to see that that was the sort of man he was; he couldn't tell people except in his paintings." 5 In his study of art and homosexuality in the twentieth century, Emmanuel Cooper argues that social, legal, and religious restraints on homosexuality, illegal in England until 1967, prevented gay artists from addressing their sexuality through their art. 6 Although these constraints did not eliminate homosexual expression, the fear of being found out and the guilt that resulted from societal disapproval and religious censure helped to drive homosexuals underground. 7 Despite the even greater restraints of Irish society, where homosexuality was illegal until 1993, several of Dillon's paintings can be interpreted through the lens of his sexuality. Existing readings of his work focus on his nationalist sympathies and his romantic [End Page 65] depictions of the west of Ireland but fail to recognize the significant influence that Dillon's sexuality had on his paintings. Reconsidering the oeuvre in terms of the artist's homosexuality and the tensions that it created with his Catholic and Irish nationalist background not only suggests new dimensions in his work but also reveals his ability to create multilayered personal images that could, nevertheless, be incorporated into the conservative canon of Irish art. Dillon's homosexuality is only one of many influences that informed his painting. However, the conflict between that identification and his romantic nationalist vision of a pure and uncorrupted Ireland makes his sexuality a disrupting presence within his oeuvre...

Waist-to-hip ratios of Jomon figurines

The authors show that the Jomon clay figurines made by hunter-gatherers use imagery that emphasises a narrow waist and full hips, showing that a female construct was part of the symbolism of these possibly shamanistic objects. In creating these figurines, prehistoric people were no doubt turning a recognition of health and fertility into more cultural icons. Admirers of the female form will be interested to learn that preference for the fuller, curvaceous ‘hourglass’ shape ‘has probably been the norm over much of human evolution’.