Oro Province Research Articles

Eventos de mareas rojas: estrategias de manejo preventivas en Ecuador

A retrospective analysis of the existing information was made on red tides, happened in understood the coastal and insular marine area of Ecuador between 1968 and 2009, in order to locate aerial geographic of main impact, times of the occurrence, species producing causes of these events and the registries of mortality of organisms. The results demonstrated 131 events of red tide in which 26 events of mortality of organisms were included. The years of greater occurrence were in 1985 (Estero Salado), 2001 (coastal central area) and 2003 (Puna island and coasts of El Oro), possibly in answer to local oceanographic conditions. The months of main occurrence were in March, April, and May, although these also were demonstrated in every month of the year, coincident with the main solar radiation. The aerial geographic of the most occurrence was located in the Gulf of Guayaquil (80%), mainly in the internal channels, near of Puna island and in front of the El Oro Province, sites that are related to areas of greatest anthropogenic use. Thirty and seven species were identified cause of red tides, being the Dinophyceae class with twenty-eight species of dinoflagellates, followed by Cyanophyceae, Bacillariophyceae (three species), Raphidophyceae (two species) and one Ciliate. The Gulf of Guayaquil it was the site that had of most number of species. Mesodinium rubrum was the dominant taxon with highest number of red tides, followed by Gymnodinium sp., Noctiluca scintillans and Cochlodinium catenatum. The twenty-six events were related to mortality of organisms (fish, shrimp and larvae of shrimp) and these happened in the Gulf mainly; this not had a scientific explication, because any environmental authority at the present as it was the cause. These results establish the necessity of actions anticipated by means of a strategies proposal in the integrated management of the prevention, control and monitoring to future events of red tides and their impacts

Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Study from the Leaves Fractions Obtained of <i>Vernonanthura patens</i> (Kunth) H. Rob

Preliminary phytochemical study of methanol extracts from Vernonanthura patens’s leaves located in Marcabelí (El Oro province), Ecuador. The methodology consisted of chromatographic column separations with increasing polarity solvents and the analysis of fractions by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry coupled system (GC-MS). The structure of 53 compounds was proposed. Analyzed V. patens species showed the presence of terpene and aliphatic hydrocarbons, free fatty acids and their methyl and ethyl esters, oxygen sesqui, triterpenoids and sugars. For ecuadorian species, there are no records of chemical studies.

Engraved prehistoric Conus shell valuables from southeastern Papua New Guinea: their antiquity, motifs and distribution

AbstractIn the early 1900s thirteen engraved Conus shell valuables were dug from prehistoric midden mounds in Oro Province. Since the early 1970s nineteen undated surface finds have been found in the northern Massim of Milne Bay Province.When three artifacts became available for AMS radiocarbon dating, provided they were restored after sampling to their original visual appearance, a specialist team was assembled and this paper reports its findings regarding the thirty‐two shells. The paper covers sampling and conservation, dating (including new information on the local oceanic reservoir effect), distribution, art, depositional and cultural histories.These distinctive Conus shell valuables are part of the material culture found along the northern coast of the eastern tip of New Guinea and on the islands of the northern Massim during the Expansion Phase c.1000–500 BP. Their decoration is comparable to that produced by Milne Bay Province woodcarvers in historic times. This continuity makes them the oldest radiocarbon dated artifacts decorated in the Massim art style.

Finding common ground: relational concepts of land tenure and economy in the oil palm frontier of Papua New Guinea

In the oil palm frontier regions of West New Britain and Oro provinces, Papua New Guinea, customary land tenure arrangements are changing in response to the growing demand for land for agricultural development. This paper examines one aspect of these changes, namely the gifting and selling of customary land for oil palm development to people who have no customary birthrights to the land. By analysing how access rights are maintained over the relatively long cultivation cycle of oil palm (approximately 25 years), and in the context of the rapidly changing socio‐economic and demographic environments of the oil palm frontiers, the paper demonstrates that while land transactions seemingly entail the commodification of land, land rights and security of land tenure remain embedded in social relationships. For customary landowners, the moral basis of land rights is contingent on ‘outsiders’ maintaining particular kinds of social and economic relationships with their customary landowning ‘hosts’. In exploring how these social relationships are constituted through the performance of particular kinds of exchange relationships, the paper provides insights into relational concepts of land rights and how these are able to persist in Papua New Guinea's oil palm frontier regions where resource struggles are often intense and where large migrant populations are seeking land for agricultural development.

Origin of the eastern brownsnake, Pseudonaja textilis (Dumeril, Bibron and Dumeril) (Serpentes: Elapidae: Hydrophiinae) in New Guinea: evidence of multiple dispersals from Australia, and comments on the status of Pseudonaja textilis pughi Hoser 2003

Pseudonaja textilis is a widespread and common snake in eastern parts of Australia, but its distribution in New Guinea is poorly understood, and the origin of the New Guinea populations and its timing have been the subject of much speculation. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences from three New Guinea populations of P. textilis indicates that New Guinea was colonised from two independent eastern and western migration routes most likely in the Pleistocene. One dispersal event from northern Queensland led to the populations in eastern New Guinea (Milne Bay, Oro and Central Provinces, Papua New Guinea), whereas another, from Arnhem Land to central southern New Guinea, led to the populations from the Merauke area, Indonesian Papua. The results are consistent with the effects of Pleistocene sea level changes on the physical geography of Australasia, and are thus suggestive of a natural rather than anthropogenic origin of the New Guinea populations. The taxonomic status of the New Guinean populations is discussed.

Parallel journeys in Korafe women’s laments (Oro Province, Papua New Guinea)

Cet article traite des rites et pratiques funéraires des Korafe en insistant sur le rôle essentiel des relations féminines du défunt, afin de contribuer à la littérature (en accroissement constant) réévaluant les rôles rituels et le statut des femmes. Par leurs lamentations, les femmes débutent, font progresser et mettent un terme aux procédures nécessaires à la transformation d’un cadavre en reliques, ainsi qu’un esprit triste et en colère en un ancêtre dans les pouvoirs desquels les vivants pourront puiser. Ces processus physiques et spirituels parallèles l’un à l’autre s’accompagnent d’une série de réajustements des relations au sein des vivants, qui doivent construire leur chagrin, replacer des personnages importants dans leur cercle social et recréer ceux des liens qui avaient été établis avec le défunt. Celles des femmes qui avaient un rôle central dans le réseau social du défunt sont cruciales pour ces procédures. Le deuil et la réclusion des veuves sont nécessaires à la reconstitution des rôles et réseaux sociaux des endeuillés, ce qui permet la transformation spirituelle du disparu et confère aux parties molles du corps de pourrir. Cette dernière pratique est importante dans les coutumes magiques des Korafé car les ossements sont des restes qui étaient traditionnellement récupérés et utilisés pour accéder aux pouvoirs magiques des ancêtres. Les veuves avaient ainsi des rôles culturellement reconnus dans la reproduction de la société et dans le système cosmologique dans son ensemble ; un rôle auquel elles ne renoncent pas aisément, malgré leur engagement contemporain dans la chrétienté.

04/00775 A utility-eye view of the CO 2 compliance-decision process in the European power-sector : Söderholm, P. and Strömberg, L. Applied Energy, 2003, 75, (3–4), 183–192

Public health responses to agricultural pesticide exposure are often informed by ethnographic or other qualitative studies of pesticide risk perception. In addition to highlighting the importance of structural determinants of exposure, such studies can identify the specific scales at which pesticide-exposed individuals locate responsibility for their health issues, with implications for study and intervention design. In this study, an ethnographic approach was employed to map scalar features within explanatory narratives of pesticides and health in Ecuador's banana-producing El Oro province. Unstructured observation, 14 key informant interviews and 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out during 8 months of fieldwork in 2011–2013. Analysis of interview data was informed by human geographic literature on the social construction of scale. Individual-focused narratives of some participants highlighted characteristics such as carelessness and ignorance, leading to suggestions for educational interventions. More structural explanations invoked farm-scale processes, such as uncontrolled aerial fumigations on plantations owned by elites. Organization into cooperatives helped to protect small-scale farmers from ‘deadly’ banana markets, which in turn were linked to the Ecuadorian nation-state and actors in the banana-consuming world. These scalar elements interacted in complex ways that appear linked to social class, as more well-off individuals frequently attributed the health problems of other (poorer) people to individual behaviours, while providing more structural explanations of their own difficulties. Such individualizing narratives may help to stabilize inequitable social structures. Research implications of this study include the possibility of using scale-focused qualitative research to generate theory and candidate levels for multi-level models. Equity implications include a need for public health researchers planning interventions to engage with scale-linked inequities, such as disparities within nation-states. Finally, the prominence of the global North in explanatory narratives is a useful reminder that ‘structural factors’ prominently include inequities related to the legacies of colonialism.

Christian Bodies: Dialectics of Sickness and Salvation Among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea

This article examines the impact of a Charismatic youth fellowship movement among the Maisin people of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, in the late 1990s. Drawing upon ethnographic and archival sources, I show that the response conforms to a pattern repeated periodically over a century of regional religious movements focused upon eradicating sorcery and promoting health. Over several generations, Maisin have experienced and interpreted Christianity in ways that at once confirm a basic belief in sorcery while prodding the faithful towards increasingly individualistic notions of morality and, thus, new collectivist responses to misfortunes like life‐threatening illnesses. Thus, while the main intent of religious movements among the Maisin has remained remarkably consistent, the underlying conception of the links between morality, sickness, and healing has shifted markedly over the years. The article thus demonstrates that Christianity in this Melanesian community has had both conservative and transformational effects upon everyday conceptions of morality, sickness, healing, and redemption. More generally, the article advocates moving the study of religious change in longer contacted regions of Melanesia from a dualistic model that opposes Western and indigenous cultures to one that examines the complex historical development of vernacular Christianity.

Dangerous Objects: Changing Indigenous Perceptions of Material Culture in a Papua New Guinea Society

Dangerous Objects:Changing Indigenous Perceptions of Material Culture in a Papua New Guinea Society1 John Barker Abstract In this article I examine the ways that the Maisin people of Oro Province in Papua New Guinea have understood and deployed objects of their material culture over the course of a century of interactions with European outsiders. In the early years of the twentieth century, an Anglican missionary noted local attitudes toward certain significant objects. Some of these objects likely became part of a large collection he made for the Australian Museum. I compare his observations with my own, made in the course of ethnographic fieldwork some 70 years later. The comparison shows that Maisin during both periods identified certain objects as emblems of kinship identity and others as dangerous, as materials for sorcery. However, Maisin attitudes toward these and other objects have been strongly influenced over the decades through encounters and dialogues with outsiders, particularly missionaries in the past and, more recently, environmentalists and museum curators. Objects can Kill. Three months into my fieldwork with the Maisin of Papua New Guinea, I came across the odd sight of an old drum hanging from a tree behind one of the village houses. I learned that a year or so earlier the owner of the drum had been publicly accused of using it to contact the spirit of a dead shaman (the former owner) to ensorcel his own wife. Protesting his innocence, he gave the drum to the son of the deceased shaman—himself a retired mission teacher—who, unwilling to handle the object himself, hung it in a tree to rot away. When I saw it, the drum had become blackened and cracked. But people clearly feared it. Although the drum was in itself nothing special, its connection to the shaman gave it historical significance, because he had been well known to the colonial authorities of the 1930s (Barker 1990). I offered to arrange for it to be sent to the National Museum of Papua New Guinea. The son eagerly accepted my offer to get the drum away, but insisted upon secrecy. It was brought to me late at night, tightly wrapped. I sent it on to the National Museum with a letter of explanation. There it remains to this day. My experience echoes that of an earlier resident among the Maisin. In 1902, an Anglican lay missionary, John Percy Money, built the first church and school at the largest Maisin village of Uiaku. In March 1903, a group of villagers responded to the urgings of one of the mission teachers, a Solomon Islander named Willie Pettawa, by bringing their "charms" to the house of the missionary. The following day, Money took the "great heap" of objects, burned them, and then scattered the ashes in a nearby swamp. An avid collector of Native "curios," Money very likely first examined the artifacts to see if any were worth preserving. It is possible that he put some aside, as he did at a similar purge of "charms" that occurred near the mission headquarters at the Ubir-speaking village of Wanigela around the same time (Wetherell 1977:177). If so, some of these objects may form part of a huge collection of Maisin and Ubir artifacts that Money gathered on behalf [End Page 359] of the Australian Museum in Sydney between 1904 and 1908. A small but significant portion of early ethnological collections came to museums in similar ways. Across Oceania, converts marked their acceptance of Christianity by desecrating spiritual places and objects. By defying the taboos of sacred groves in Malaita or exposing cult objects to women and uninitiated men on the south coast of Papua, Christians sought to demonstrate the superior power of their newly found god and, very likely, to reduce the chances of the ancestors retaliating for their heresy. Often encouraged by missionaries, the new zealots engaged in orgies of destruction. But some objects survived, put aside by missionaries to be used as teaching devices on fund-raising tours or to be sold to collectors and museums (Lawson 1994). The same thing happened elsewhere in the indigenous world. In British Columbia, for instance, the Methodist missionary Thomas Crosby amassed a...

Reassessing the Developmental and Chronological Relationships of the Formative of Coastal Ecuador

The Ecuadorian Formative was initially interpreted as a result of long-distance diffusion, and migration, more recent research has changed our perception of the Valdivia, Machalilla, and Chorrera culture complexes. In this analysis, these archaeological investigations are reassessed in order to reevaluate our understanding regarding the nature of these prehistoric cultures. Formative chronologies, distributions, interrelationships are reviewed in the light of Pre-Hispanic occupations in El Oro Province. Previous investigations on the Ecuadorian littoral are examined. Results indicate (1) Valdivia and Machalilla are part of the same ceramic tradition and (2) the interrelationships of these complexes to Late Formative Period ceramic sequences are more complex than previously assumed. (3) A major adaptive shift related to an increased dependence upon agriculture occurred during Valdivia VI–VIII, and continued into the Late Formative with the widespread distribution of Chorrera related material culture. (4) Long-distance interaction with the Ecuadorian highlands resulted in the spread of what may be termed a Chorrera horizon and formed the basis of subsequent Andean cosmology where it was symbolically represented according to local and regional artistic canons and over a vast area of Andean South America.

Morphology of the female Myrmecolacidae (Strepsiptera) including the apron, and an associated structure analogous to the peritrophic matrix

Abstract Development in the totally endoparasitic female Strepsiptera has been clarified by light and electron microscopy. At the end of the 4th instar the cuticle sclerotizes anteriorly to form the cephalothorax and collar, the former of which is later extruded through the host cuticle. Posteriorly, the cuticle remains unsclerotized, and this region is within the host. The moult to the neotenic adult takes place within the 4th instar cuticle, and the epicuticles of the previous instars are retained as persistent sheaths. The gut, which is present in the earlier endoparasitic stages, is lost after extrusion of the cephalothorax, and a novel structure develops on the ventral surface of the neotenic female. Due to the position of this novel structure in the neotenic female, this area is called an apron . The detailed structure of the membranes in the apron in Stichotrema dallatorreanum Hofeneder from Oro Province, and of another female myrmecolacid (which has a different host) from West New Britain in Papua New Guinea, is described. A dual function for the apron is proposed.

Morphology of the female Myrmecolacidae (Strepsiptera) including the apron, and an associated structure analogous to the peritrophic matrix

Development in the totally endoparasitic female Strepsiptera has been clarified by light and electron microscopy. At the end of the 4th instar the cuticle sclerotizes anteriorly to form the cephalothorax and collar, the former of which is later extruded through the host cuticle. Posteriorly, the cuticle remains unsclerotized, and this region is within the host. The moult to the neotenic adult takes place within the 4th instar cuticle, and the epicuticles of the previous instars are retained as persistent sheaths. The gut, which is present in the earlier endoparasitic stages, is lost after extrusion of the cephalothorax, and a novel structure develops on the ventral surface of the neotenic female. Due to the position of this novel structure in the neotenic female, this area is called an apron. The detailed structure of the membranes in the apron inStichotrema dallatorreanum Hofeneder from Oro Province, and of another female myrmecolacid (which has a different host) from West New Britain in Papua New Guinea, is described. A dual function for the apron is proposed.

Village Inventions: Historical Variations Upon a Regional Theme in Uiaku, Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACTAnthropologists have come to realize that even the most ‘traditional’ Melanesian practices and ideologies may be historically shaped by the people's experiences within encompassing regional systems. This article examines the reshaping of local understandings of the village among the Maisin people of Oro Province over the past century. I distinguish three contexts within which Maisin notions of the village have been formed: colonial models of village government imposed before the Second World War; Christian village cooperatives in the post‐war colonial period; and village meetings in the 1980s. The paper shows that the idea of the village has a complex evolution, shaped within overlapping dialogues between villagers and significant outsiders and between elder and younger village leaders who have had differing experiences of the outside world and the place of their own community within it.

Revision of the old world Holothyridae (Arachnida : Anactinotrichida : Holothyrina)

A revised classification of the Holothyridae is presented. The family is restricted to archipelagoes from Melanesia to the Seychelles, with no known records from any continent. Evolution of holothyrid characters, phylogenetic relationships of the eight holothyrid genera and criteria for taxonomic categories in Holothyridae are discussed.Holothyrus braueri Thon, 1905, from the Seychelle Islands, is selected as the type species of a new genus, Sternothyrus. A new genus, Lindothyrus, is created for L. rubellus, sp. nov., from the western coast of New Caledonia, and L. elongatus, sp. nov., from Lord Howe Island, Australia. Indothyrus greeni, gen. et sp. nov., is described from Sri Lanka. Hammenius (Leiothyrus) Hammen, 1983 is raised to generic rank and Holothyrus nitidissimus Thorell, 1882 from the Fly River, and H. armatus Canestrini from Tamara Island (Aitape), both New Guinea, are included in this genus. The two previously known New Guinean genera, Thonius Lehtinen, 1981 and Hammenius Lehtinen, 1981, are redefined and relimited, and their type species are redescribed. Five new holothyrid taxa are described from New Guinea: Thonius mendi from the Strickland River, T. berlesei from an unknown locality, Hammenius fujuge iora from the Central district, Oro Province, H. grandjeani gressitti from Mt Bosavi, and H. insularis from the Louisiade Archipelago. Holothyrus Gervais, 1842 is restricted to two species from Mauritius only. A new genus, Haplothyrus, is created for the New Caledonian species H. expolitissimus Berlese, 1924 and for H. hyatti, sp. nov., from an unknown locality. Haplothyrus is characterised by the possession of a single female genital valve instead of four valves, as in all other genera of this suborder. The poorly described Seychellian species with no preserved material could not be revised.

Growth hormone receptor deficiency in Ecuador: clinical and biochemical phenotype in two populations.

We have identified 56 patients with GH receptor deficiency (Laron syndrome) from two provinces in southern Ecuador, one group of 26 (Loja province) with a 4:1 female predominance and 30 patients from neighboring El Oro province with a normal sex ratio. There were no significant differences between the Loja and El Oro populations in stature (-5.3 to -11.5 standard deviation score), other auxologic measures, or in biochemical measures. GH binding protein, the circulating extracellular domain of the GH receptor, was measured by ligand immunofunction assay and found to be comparably low in children and adults. Levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and -II and the GH-dependent IGF binding protein-3 (measured by RIA) were significantly greater, and GH and IGF binding protein-2 levels significantly lower in adults than children. Levels of IGF-I (adults) and IGF binding protein-3 (children and adults) correlated inversely with statural deviation from normal (P < 0.01). School performance was at an exceptionally high level, 41 out of 47 who had attended school being in the top 3 in classes of 15-50 persons.

Medicinal Plants of the Oro (Northern) Province of Papua New Guinea

Medicinal Plants of the Oro (Northern) Province of Papua New Guinea

New geochronological control for the tectono-magmatic evolution of the metamorphic basement, Cordillera Real and El Oro Province of Ecuador

Some 150 new isotopic age determinations on metamorphic rocks from the Cordillera Real and parts of El Oro Province in Ecuador, using K-Ar, Rb-Sr, and Sm-Nd methods, help to clarify a complex succession of magmatic and tectonic events. The earliest regional metamorphic/plutonic event recognized, from the Tahuin Group in El Oro, is dated as between ca. 220 and 200 Ma (Late Triassic-Early Jurassic). Similar but less well constrained ages were also obtained from orthogneisses of the Sabanilla and Tres Lagunas subdivisions in the Cordillera Real. Major calc-alkaline granitoids were emplaced ca. 190–150 Ma (Middle-Late Jurassic) in the eastern part of the Cordillera Real, to the north of 2°S, and throughout the sub-Andean zone. Between ca. 140 and 120 Ma (Early Cretaceous), the Oriente region was uplifted and eroded and the Cordillera was affected by an important shearing (dynamothermal) event which results in the resetting of older plutonic ages. From ca. 20 to 85 Ma, conditions were relatively stable, but during ca. 85 to 65 Ma (Late Cretaceous), the Cordillera and Oriente were again uplifted. This uplift corresponds to a second widespread thermal overprinting, which produced a regional disturbance in the K-Ar isotopic systems. Throughout the Cordillera, a number of generally small, undeformed, dominantly lower Tertiary plutons are also present. A few older ( i.e., pre-Mesozoic) dates have been obtained but their interpretation remains uncertain.

Big men and great men: personifications of power in Melanesia

PART I 1. From great men to big men: peace, substitution and competition in the Highlands of New Guinea PIERRE LEMONNIER 2. Great man, big man, chief: a triangulation of the Massim JOHN LIEP 3. Soaring hawks and grounded persons: the politics of rank and gender in North Vanuatu MARGARET JOLLY PART II 4. Punishing the yams: leadership and gender ambivalence on Sabarl Island DEBBORA BATTAGLIA 5. Great men and total systems: North Mekeo hereditary authority and social reproduction MARK MOSKO 6. The cryptic brotherhood of big men and great men in Ilahita DONALD TUZIN 7. Complementarity and rivalry: two contradictory principles in Yafar society BERNARD JUILLERAT 8. How Oro province societies fit Godelier's model ERIC SCHWIMMER PART III 9. The fractal person ROY WAGNER 10. The flute myth and the law of equivalence: origins of a principle of exchange GILLIAN GILLISON 11. One man and many men MARILYN STRATHERN 12. Interests in exchange: increment, equivalence and the limits of big-manship RENA LEDERMAN 13. Post-Ipomoean modernism: the Duna example NICHOLAS MODJESKA 14. Big men, great men and women: alternative logics of gender difference DAN JORGENSEN PART IV 15. An unfinished attempt at reconstructing the social processes which may have prompted the transformation of great men societies into big men societies MAURICE GODELIER.

Hegemony and the Language of Change: The Pidginization of Land Tenure among the Managalase of Papua New Guinea

Coffee was introduced to the Managalase of Papua New Guinea by the colonial government as an alternative to the coastal plantations as a source of cash. This was done in an effort to keep young men from leaving their villages to seek employment on the plantations. This behavior was negatively affecting the population profile of the families on the Managalase Plateau of Oro Province. During the planning stages of this program it was feared that a cash economy might place pressure on the local social structure. In order to avoid this they instructed the Managalase to plant coffee in their family plots the plots that were inherited patrilineally. This turned out to be a tragic mistake. The officers did not realize the complexity of the Managalase land tenure and clan membership structures which they were attempting to preserve. The repercussions of this misunderstanding where limited in affect between 1957 and 1974 the year of independence. This is when it reached a critical stage because the distinction originally made between land for cash crops and all other land began to disappear. As more cash and more trade store goods entered the system more and more land was set aside for cash crops rather than subsistence land. This had the effect of leaving the people with matrilineal claims to land increasingly landless. Along with the redefinition of land tenure for women came a redefinition of womens social identities. This led to hegemony that changed an essentially cognatic system to a patrilineal system. The nature of clan identity and kinship was changed the womens position in social organization was redefined the nature of marriage was changed and the political structure based on affinal exchange was disrupted.

Growth Hormone Receptor Deficiency (Laron Syndrome): Clinical and Genetic Characteristics

Approximately 60 cases of GHRD (Laron syndrome) were reported before 1990 and half of these were from Israel. We have described 47 additional patients from an inbred population of South Ecuador and have emphasized certain clinical features including: markedly advanced osseous maturation for height age; normal body proportions in childhood but child-like proportions in adults; much greater deviation of stature than head size, giving an appearance of large cranium and small facies; underweight in childhood despite the appearance of obesity and true obesity in adulthood; blue scleras; and limited elbow extension. The Ecuadorean patients differed markedly and most importantly from the other large concentration, in Israel, by being of normal or superior intelligence, suggesting a unique linkage in the Ecuadorean population. The Ecuadorean population also differed in that those patients coming from Loja province had a markedly skewed sex ratio (19 females: 2 males), while those from El Oro province had a normal sex distribution (14 females: 12 males). The phenotypic similarity between the El Oro and Loja patients indicates that this abnormal sex distribution is not a direct result of the GHRD.