Relative Breadth Research Articles

Relative foot size and shape to general body size in Javanese, Filipinas and Japanese with special reference to habitual footwear types

SummaryStature, body weight, left foot length and breadth were measured on East Javanese, Filipinas in Northern Luzon, and Japanese in Tokyo. No footwear is used by the Javanese, rubber sandals are used by the Filipinas, and sneakers or leather shoes by the Japanese group. Regression lines regardless of age were obtained among these four measurements, body mass index (BMI), and relative foot breadth to foot length. The relationships between general body size and foot size/shape were examined with regard to footwear. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) in either sex, compared with the Japanese, the East Javanese have a longer foot for the same stature and body weight, and a wider foot for the same BMI and the same foot length; (2) the relationship between BMI and foot shape (breadth/length) is nearly the same in the Filipinas and the Japanese females; (3) sexual dimorphism of the foot is greater among the East Javanese than among the Japanese; (4) as body size/weight increases sexual dimorphism diminishes among the East Javanese, whereas it is more emphasized among the Japanese; (5) the appropriateness of the regression equation obtained from measurements of present-day barefoot peoples for estimation of the stature of prehistoric humans is supported.

Neandertal pedal proximal phalanges: diaphyseal loading patterns

Abstract Neandertal proximal pedal phalanges have been described as short relative to foot length with relatively wide diaphyses, the latter purportedly to resist elevated levels of mediolateral loading during locomotion. Analysis of proximal pedal phalanges from samples of Neandertals, early modern humans, and recent small-scale and industrial society humans demonstrates that the Neandertals have moderately shorter proximal pedal phalanges with the middle (digits 2–4) phalanges having significantly wider diaphyses relative to the recent humans. The early modern humans have relatively abbreviated phalanges, similar to the Neandertals, and occupy an intermediate position with respect to relative phalangeal shaft breadth. These data suggest: (1) a higher frequency and/or level of mediolateral loading of the anterior foot among Upper Pleistocene humans related to contrasting behavioral patterns, and (2) a generally higher level of robusticity of the anterior foot with the elevated dorsoplantar stress on the phalanges being resisted more by extensor and flexor tendon tension and the mediolateral and torsional stresses being resisted by increased diaphyseal breadth. This study, in conjunction with other lower-limb morphological comparisons between Neandertals, early modern humans and recent humans, suggests gradual decreases in locomotor anatomy robusticity (and hence locomotor activity levels) through the later Upper Pleistocene and Holocene with a possible change in lower-limb loading patterns with the emergence of early modern humans.

Emerging stock markets of the Eastern Mediterranean rim

The Eastern Mediterranean Rim possesses a vast and rich history of capitalist activity and capital markets. The oldest civilizations along these shores, namely in Egypt, in Greece, and in modern day Turkey, had an understanding of rudimentary economic theory and monetary systems long before the precursor peoples of the industrialized economies of today. Even stock markets in Turkey, Lebanon, and Egypt had greater relative depth and breadth 50 years ago than do 90% of the so-called emerging markets of today. This survey analyzes and profiles the equity capital markets of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt, and provides some clues to their future growth and performance.

Selectivity of end-Cretaceous marine bivalve extinctions.

Analyses of the end-Cretaceous or Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction show no selectivity of marine bivalve genera by life position (burrowing versus exposed), body size, bathymetric position on the continental shelf, or relative breadth of bathymetric range. Deposit-feeders as a group have significantly lower extinction intensities than suspension-feeders, but this pattern is due entirely to low extinction in two groups (Nuculoida and Lucinoidea), which suggests that survivorship was not simply linked to feeding mode. Geographically widespread genera have significantly lower extinction intensities than narrowly distributed genera. These results corroborate earlier work suggesting that some biotic factors that enhance survivorship during times of lesser extinction intensities are ineffectual during mass extinctions.

Children With Special Health Needs: A United States Perspective

Several themes run through this consideration of children with special health needs and their families. First, US programs tend to be fragmented in the sense that many geographic areas lack adequate services, and only partial types of family support and treatment services are available despite the relative breadth of family needs. Programs tend to be focused in the sense of separating children based on the specific health condition that they have, despite the similarity of issues for their families that cross diseases. This approach provides focused attention to high quality and high technology medical and surgical care and may lead to better physiologic outcomes, but it lessens attention to the issues that may help the child function effectively in society and grow into a participating young adult. For teenagers, focus on pregnancy prevention may take attention away from other pressing problems, such as substance abuse or sexually transmitted diseases. Hearing screening for school-aged children may take place isolated from intervention programs or from broader preventive health efforts. In Europe, the whole is more than the sum of its parts and the commitment to community-based preventive care assures children and families access to a wide array of preventive efforts. Second, the political will in the US emphasizes freedom of personal choice and individual and family responsibility. This issue of free choice is tempered by restrictions on access to contraceptive education and services for teenagers. But, in general, it limits public support for families with children with special health needs, emphasizing instead the family's responsibility to seek services and provide care, whether for the prevention or management of adolescent pregnancy or for the home and community management of children with complex physical health needs. Programs reflect the belief that families should meet their own needs. In Europe, in distinction, the social contract assumes that families with children with special health needs require additional resources from the community and fosters a broad base of financial support for families. Some conclusions may be drawn about the population of children with special health needs. First, insurance alone will not meet their needs. Other structures (with adequate funding) are needed to insure the development of systems of care, the availability of adequate preventive services, the development and maintenance of regionalized programs where necessary, and the assurance of quality. Second, prevention is relevant for all of these issues of children with special health needs, the prevention of adolescent pregnancy, the prevention of handicap for children with disabilities, or the prevention of dysfunction from a hearing impairment. Much prevention can be carried out at a community level. A broad-based effort reflecting community needs is preferable to fragmented prevention programs for specific issues. Third, a broad notion of children with special health needs is required, rather than a focused campaign on narrow problems. Families' reports of issues in raising children with diverse chronic illnesses and developmental disabilities reflect many similar problems: financing, respite care, physical burdens of care, lack of coordination of services, and limited access to many needed services. Fourth, regulation and regionalization may be necessary to assure access to appropriate services for all children with special health needs. Public planning and regulation are concepts that have been anathema in health policy in the last several years, yet they may be necessary to assure adequate services in all parts of the country.

When to lead or follow? It depends

Existing studies of entry strategy attribute sustained pioneer advantages to the pioneer's ability to erect barriers that impede the entry of potential competitors. Because effective entry barriers imply industry concentration, the entry-barrier explanation of sustained pioneer advantage suggests that pioneers in concentrated industries will experience superior mature-stage performance. This paper tests this hypothesis by controlling for industry concentration and analyzing the impact of entry strategy on the mature-stage firm's market share, perceived relative product quality, relative product-line breadth, relative price, and relative direct costs. The analysis suggests that the presence of effective barriers-to-entry significantly affects the performance poineers in both consumer- and industrial-goods industries. Moreover, the extent to which pioneers receive an incremental share advantage over early followers depends on both industry type and end-user purchase amounts.

Occlusal variation in Australian Aboriginals

Variation of dental occlusion around established norms has frequently been related to industrialized or modernized life habits. This tendency has been tested among samples (n = 48) of older (originally nomadic) and younger (settled and rationed) Australian Aboriginals. Although significant differences are found in incisor relation traits, tooth malalignment, and relative arch breadth, these are slight compared to some other studies of peoples undergoing one-generation dietary westernization. Reasons for this might relate to concomitantly subtle differences in diet or masticatory habits, genetic buffering, attrition gradient, tooth size, biased sampling according to tooth retention, or fluoride in water supplies.

The crystallinity of human deciduous teeth in hypophosphataemic vitamin D-resistant rickets

Five teeth were obtained from three patients with hypophosphataemic vitamin D-resistant rickets (HVDRR) and five corresponding sound teeth from five healthy children. According to powder X-ray diffraction analysis, the half-peak breadths of (310) and (002) reflections of HVDRR dentine were smaller than those of normal dentine. Splitting fractions obtained from i.r. spectral analysis of HVDRR dentine powder were larger than those of normal. Microbeam X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the relative half-peak breadths of globular dentine in ground sections of HVDRR teeth were smaller than those of normal circumpulpal dentine. Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that the hydroxyapatite crystals of globular dentine in HVDRR teeth were larger than those of normal dentine. Thus the crystallinity of deciduous tooth dentine in HVDRR was greater than that of normal dentine, mainly because of the large hydroxyapatite crystals in HVDRR globular dentine.

Development of the helicoidal plane

In this study of thebelicoidal occlusal plane the relationships between tooth wear, the transverse slopes of mandibular molars and dental arch breadths were examined in 74 pre-contemporary Australian Aboriginal skulls. With increasing age and tooth wear the orientation of the mandibular occlusal surfaces increased towards the buccal. The differential occlusal orientation from first to third molars, present at eruption, tended to increase progressively with tooth wear. These functionally induced changes, together with regional differences in relative breadths of the maxillary and mandibular dental arches, are important in the development of abelicoidal occlusal plane.

The stumptail macaques of China.

The stumptail macaque species Macaca thibetana and Macaca arctoides replace one another from north to south in subtropical and tropical China. These species differ in external and cranial characters. Neonatal pelage color is pale grayish-brown in M. thibetana and whitish in M. arctoides. In adults, ventral pelage is whitish in M. thibetana and brown in M. arctoides. The forehead and cheeks are thickly furred in adult M. thibetana and bald in M. arctoides. Facial skin color typically is sexually dimorphic in M. thibetana-buffy in males and reddish in females-and monomorphic in M. arctoides-reddish in both sexes. Head and body length, weight, relative tail length, and relative ear length all tend to average greater in M. thibetana than in M. arctoides. Skull length, rostral-postrostral ratio, and relative canine length in males average greater in M. thibetana. than in M. arctoides; relative zygomatic breadth and relative bimalar breadth average greater in M. arctoides than in M. thibetana. Reproductive anatomy in both sexes is strikingly divergent in these two species. Although these species are adapted to different climatic zones, many aspects of their natural history are generally similar, as far as is now known. One apparent behavioral difference is that M. thibetana usually sleeps in caves or rocky crevices, while M. arctoides usually sleeps in trees.

Comparative Morphology Of Eggs Of Heterophyids And Clonorchis Sinensis Causing Human Infections In Korea.

In order to provide some clues for differential diagnosis of trematode infections in fecal examination, the comparative morphology of eggs of 5 kinds of heterophyid flukes (Metagonimus yokogawai, Heterophyes heterophyes nocens, Heterophyopsis continua, Stellantchasmus falcatus and Pygidiopsis summa) and Clonorchis sinensis was studied. The eggs were obtained from distal portion of uteri of worms which were recovered from men after treatment. The characteristic shape and apperance of each kind of eggs were observed in detail under light microscope, and their length and width measured and compared one another. The results are as follows: Eggs of C. sinensis are elongated ovoidal in shape with attenuated anterior end, 25.3-33.2 (28.3 in average) micrometer long and 14.2-17.4(15.9) micrometer wide with length /width ratio of 1.60-2.00 (1.78). They differ from all heterophyid eggs in that they have prominent wrinkling (muskmelon pattern) at their shell surface. P. summa eggs are ovoid to pyriform in shape and characterized by the smallest size of all kinds examined, 19.8-22.9(21.6) micrometer long and 11.1-13.4 (12.1) micrometer wide and the ratio 1.63-1.99 (1.78). Eggs of S. falcatus are elongated ovoidal and most slender form, 25.3-29.2 (27.2) micrometer long and 11.1-13.4 (12.5) micrometer wide with the ratio of 2.00-2.57 (2.17). Eggs of M. yokogawai are ellipsoid to elliptical in shape with round both ends, 26.9-31.6 (28.5) micrometer long and 14.2-18.2 (16.8) micrometer wide with the ratio of 1.48-2.11(1.70). H. continua eggs are oval in shape, sometimes similar to M. yokogawai or H. h. nocens eggs, however, the relative breadth is broadest among all kinds, with maximum width at posterior half portion. They are 23.7-27.7 (25.0) micrometer long, 15.8-18.9 (16.4) micrometer wide with the ratio of 1.33-1.75 (1.53). Eggs of H. h. nocens are ellipsoid to ovoid in shape but sometimes more slender than M. yokogawai and have slightly pointed both ends. They are 23.7-29.2 (25.7) micrometer long, 14.2-15.8 (15.4) micrometer wide, and the ratio 1.50-2.06 (1.67). From the results, it is concluded that eggs of 5 kinds of heterophyids and C. sinensis can be morphologically differentiated one another, however, careful observation and measurement on sufficient number of eggs are needed.

Application of Genotype‐Environment Interaction Analysis to Niche Quantification

Current methods of calculating niche breadth are often inadequate for plant study. Classical analysis techniques of genotype—environment interaction are offered as a better method of quantifying the niches of organisms, particularly plants. The analysis which is widely used in the fields of genetics and crop and stock breeding can be used to examine ecological relationships between genotypes in a population, populations of a species, or species within a community. The analysis gives measures of the relative niche breadth (equability) and magnitude of response between organims being compared. All that is required for input into the analysis is the performance of each organism (entity) in a number of environments (states). Quantification of the environment is not necessary and different resource gradients can be lumped together in a single analysis. A step—by—step description of the analysis is given. The techniques are demonstrated with two examples, one using a hypothetical data set and the other employing data from the classic experiments of Clausen, Keck, and Hiesey on Potentialla glandulosa. This analysis has advantages over classical niche metrics in that the magnitude or level of response of organisms is measured as well as the breadth of response.

Geographic Variation in an Australian Species of Chaoborus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Populations of an unnamed species of Chaoborus vary geographically in south-eastern Australia, along what appears to be a north-south cline. At least five characters are involved: in the adult, wing length and the colour of the style of the male coxite; in the larva, overall size, a complex character that includes relative breadth of the head, and degree of development of oesophageal molars. The dimensional characters of the larva were synthesized by means of principal component analysis; they show significant regressions on temperature. Latitudinal variation in size also occurs in the mosquitoes Anopheles annulipes and Culex vigilax, illustrating the occurrence in Culicidae of something analogous to 'Bergman's Rule' (of homoiotherms).

Sedimentary characteristics of suspensions in London Stormwater

The paper reports the results of an investigation into the size and compositional variations of suspended solids during storm-runoff events in an urban catchment. Particle-size analysis indicates that the mass-size distribution for suspended sediments is typically bimodal, although the relative size, breadth and location of the peaks varies through the cycle and from one storm to another. The importance of particle aggregation on the size distributions is discussed and the role of organic particulates in this relation examined. The elemental composition is dominated by silicon and aluminium with the mineralogy being dominated by impure mixtures of quartzo-feldspathic material. The observed textural, compositional and mineralogical variations have been used as diagnostic properties in the identification of source materials and their transport history through the catchment.

Responsibility and sociological discourse

This article reads Chaim Perelman's theory of argumentation in order to formulate the task of social theorizing as responsible discourse. Taking rationality as sound argument which proceeds in terms of a link between speaker's intentions (the audience) and the public, the first part examines Perelman's notions about the relativity of facts to particular traditions of communication which link speakers, argumentation, and publics. Accepting that this view, shared by many sociologists, allows for no general criterion of rationality to be used as a principle for responsible speaking, the second part discusses how a choice for one or another tradition of reasoning in sociology might responsibly be made. This criterion for choosing is presented in terms of the relative generality and breadth of intended audiences and the relative openness to criticism of traditions of discourse.

Competitive position effects and market share: An exploratory investigation

This paper investigates the relative competitive position of a firm with a view toward determining those marketing effort dimensions that significantly influence market share. The study differs from previously published reports in that it utilizes the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategy (PIMS) data base on relative marketing effort to identify key marketing effort variables for two broad classes of goods: consumer nondurables and capital goods. The framework for a competitive positive effects model is developed in terms of nine relative marketing effort dimensions expressed along categories roughly corresponding to competitive superiority, parity, or inferiority. Hypotheses for the two classes of goods, gleaned from the available marketing literature, were empirically tested with use of linear regression models. Though the sets of coefficients relating to the nine marketing decision variables significantly differed ac across industries, similar patterns were found in both groups with respect to the relative breadth of product line and relative product quality dimensions. The results also tended to (a) support the claim of Buzzel et al. [Product Quality, Strategic Planning Institute, Cambridge, 1978] that for product quality to matter, improvements relative to competition must be substantial, and (b) show that for certain effort dimensions striving for competitive superiority may not generate sizable increases in relative market share.

Structure of coniferous forest communities in Western Washington: Diversity and ecotope properties

Vegetation patterns were examined in three regions of coniferous forest, arrayed along a gradient of decreasing maritime influence. The following responses to decreasing maritime influence were noted: all aspects of species diversity increase; growth-form complexity increases; habitat heterogeneity increases; species habitat breadths decrease; and habitat overlaps decrease. These observations result from studies of both individual plots and data aggregated into community types. The contrasts between the maritime western study region and the more continental eastern study region imply that ecotope differentiation increases from west to east. The enhanced structural complexity of the eastern region results from climatical limitation of the dominant tree species. Reduced canopy dominance produces greater within-habitat heterogeneity with respect to moisture, light, and soil properties. Furthermore, contrasts between the extremes of the topographic-moisture gradient increase toward the east. These factors combine to increase alpha, beta, and gamma diversities in the eastern study region above those of the western study region. Corresponding to these diversity trends are decreasing mean relative niche, habitat, and ecotope breadths of species toward the east

On the shape of waste flakes as an index of technological change in lithic industries

This article begins with a brief review of current approaches to the study of discarded stone flakes in Europe, from a broad-based techno-stylistic point of view. The practice of splitting the relative breadth distribution of flakes in a waste assemblage into a series of classes beyond that of blades and flakes is regarded as particularly promising, and the results of multivariate analyses on data prepared in this way for sites in southern England and northern Italy (mainly post-glacial in date) are presented. Where possible, for the Italian sites comparisons are made between the results of these studies and similar analyses of the retouched tools. In conclusion, a plea is made to workers in this field to adopt standard conventions, so that pan-European studies become feasible.

Thermal Biology of Anolis Lizards in a Complex Fauna: The Christatellus Group on Puerto Rico

To describe the thermal biology of the three trunk—ground species of the Anolis cristatellus group on Puerto Rico, an island with 10 species of Anolis, we obtained samples of air and body temperatures of A. gundlachi (shady perches, montane forests), A. cristatellus (shady or sunny perches in open or closed forests, lowlands to mid—elevations), and A. cooki (sunny perches in open, xeric lowlands). Average body temperatures parallel altitudinal and habitat association (lowest for A gundlachi, highest for A. cooki). Within a species, body temperatures are strongly correlated with air temperatures and thus vary with altitude, time of day, habitat, and weather. Observed differences between sympatric species in body temperatures and habitat probably reflect physiological requirements, but may be magnified by competition. Relative thermal niche breadth of individuals of these species is approximated and compared with data on species from simple anole faunas to evaluate hypotheses on the evaluation of thermal niche breadth. Extent of basking behavior is inversely related to associated costs for these species. In closed forests where costs of raising body temperatures are high, A. gundlachi and A. cristatellus rarely bask and seemingly are routinely passive to ambient conditions. In open habitats where costs are low, A. cristatellus and A. cooki frequently bask.

A comment on relative molar breadth in Ramapithecus

The evidence for broad molars in Ramapithecus is reviewed in this study. Extensive comparisons are made with living and fossil pongids and the earliest undoubted hominids, the australopithecines. These comparisons suggest that Ramapithecus is like its closely related Indian relatives, D. indicus and D. sivalensis. Trends in molar shape are discussed as well as some problems in the interpretation of the adaptive meaning of relative molar breadth in hominoids.