Shorter Fingers Research Articles

An Unmet Need: Surgical Gloves with Variable Finger Lengths.

Background:Sterile gloves are essential for plastic surgery, but little research has been published on glove fit. Sterile gloves are produced by all manufacturers, with finger lengths fixed for all sizes. Many wearers have fingers that are shorter or longer than usual, causing functional limitations due to incorrect glove finger length and fingertip fit.Methods:A multiquestion confidential electronic survey of glove finger length fit was sent to 6810 plastic surgery glove wearers from three organizations: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, International Society of Plastic and Aesthetic Nurses, and Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants. Data were collected for this descriptive study in 2020–2021, and statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (version 27). Sample gloves from six brands were directly measured for finger length.Results:The survey yielded 500 responses, with some respondents not answering all questions. The response rate from American Society of Plastic Surgeons members was 8.2%, and was 7.3% from all groups combined. The most common reason for glove finger length dissatisfaction was fingers being too long (41.61%). Although there was variation in measured glove finger lengths, the variation was not uniform. Of all responders, 28.6% were very likely, and 16.16%, moderately likely, to want to use gloves with longer or shorter fingers if available, constituting a total of 44. 76%. Of these, 36.55% would pay increased cost (10%–25%) for such gloves.Conclusions:A high percentage of glove users would want gloves with variable finger lengths. Current surgical gloves do not support hand anatomy variations.

Hand anthropometry survey in Iranian adults and comparisons with other populations.

Hand anthropometry is useful for designing manual systems such as hand tools, controls, and gloves. There are limited published data on the hand dimensions of Iranian male and female adults. This study was undertaken to measure the hand anthropometric dimensions in Iranian adults to compare data between two genders and also with the corresponding data from other nationalities. A total of 34 dimensions of the right hand were measured in 217 male and 128 female adults using a digital caliper and tape. The mean, standard deviation, and the main percentiles are summarized in a table and the mean of each dimension is compared by independent t-tests between genders. Hand dimensions are compared between Iranian and other nationalities such as North Colombian, Korean, Turkish, Nigerian, Bangladeshi, Jordanian, and Vietnamese using the published data. Females had significantly smaller hand dimensions than males in all dimensions ranged from 4.21%to 18.16%, with the largest differences in hand breadths. Compared with other nationalities, the Iranian male and female adults had wider (greater breadth and circumferences) hands with shorter fingers. The results showed significant differences of hand anthropometry between Iranian and other nationalities which should be included in the design and selection of hand tools for Iranian population.

Characteristics of few commercial and indigenous cultivars of banana grown in Assam

Characteristics of few commercial and indigenous banana cultivars of Musa AAA group, namely, Jahaji, Barjahaji, Maan Jahaji, Suti Jahaji, Grand Naine, Giant Governor, Amritsagar, Sahabkal, Red Banana and Tulshi Manohar were studied in the Instructional cum Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath Chariali during 2013–14. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Among the different cultivars, Red Banana recorded the highest number of functional leaves per plant. The longest fingers were produced by Grand Naine followed by Sahabkal, Barjahaji and Amritsagar, while the other cultivars produced comparatively shorter fingers. Yield and yield attributing characters were found to be significant among all the cultivars. Among the cultivars, Grand Naine recorded the highest number of hands (10.72/bunch), number of fingers (135/bunch), length of finger (20.05 cm), pulp: peel ratio (2.87), bunch weight (24.66 kg/bunch) and yield (55.91 t/ha) with the longest peduncle (52.33 cm). Though the heaviest fingers were produced by Red Banana (161.41 g/finger) but the number of hands (4/bunch), number of fingers (43.60/bunch), bunch weight (9.05 kg/bunch) and yield (20.52 t/ha) were observed to be the lowest with shortest peduncle length (29.0 cm) in Red Banana.

A new species of semi-terrestrial freshwater crab (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamidae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

A new species of semi-terrestrial crab of the family Potamidae, Rathbunamon chumomrayense sp. nov. is described from Chu Mom Ray National Park, the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The new species can be distinguished from R. lacunifer (Rathbun, 1904), the only other species in the genus, by a suite of characters, including the slightly more rugose anterolateral regions, confluent epigastric and postorbital cristae that are sinuous, less convex anterolateral margins, relatively shorter fingers of the chelipeds, and the terminal segment of the male first gonopod being slightly curved outwards, with narrower dorsal flap.

An anthropometric survey of Korean hand and hand shape types

Some tools or interfaces designed not to fit the size of individuals make users experience discomfort and lower productivity. Previous studies on hands tend to focus only on measuring lengths of various hand parts and reporting the distribution of these measurements. In order to overcome this, we aim to distinguish major factors that determine hand shapes and categorize the hand shapes of Koreans. 321 people (167 males and 154 females) enrolled as subjects of this study by their own will. 21 hand dimensions including length, breadth, and circumference of the hand were measured. T-value and correlation coefficients were compared to identify the difference of measurement values and the relation between hand measurements and heights. Factor and cluster analysis was conducted to identify hand shape types of Korean. Descriptive statistics of Korean hand dimension were presented. 78.3% of the variance of hand shape was explained by 3 major factors (factor 1: hand breadth, factor 2: palm length, factor 3: finger length). We also distinguished 4 hand shape types and found that wide hand and short finger type (type 1) was the most common in males, but narrow hand and short finger type was the most common in females. Korean males and females had wider hands and shorter fingers than the people of 8 other nations. We expect products and interfaces to be designed based on these understandings on the characteristics of Korean hands that the result of our study suggests.

Perturbations in finger length and digit ratio (2D:4D) in ICSI children

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is used to overcome severe male-factor infertility where males are azoospermic or have poor quality spermatozoa. Perturbations of finger length (short finger length adjusted for height and high second-to-fourth digit ratio, or 2D:4D) have been described in azoospermic men and men who are rated as having low sexual attractiveness. High 2D:4D has been described in women with high fecundity. Such perturbations may be related to endocrine regulation of some homeobox genes. This study compared finger length and 2D:4D in singleton children conceived with the help of ICSI with those in naturally conceived singleton controls. Participants were recruited from centres in Germany and the UK. There were 211 children conceived by ICSI and 195 controls. Finger length was measured from photocopies of the ventral surface of the hand. In comparison to controls, male and female ICSI children had shorter fingers after correction for height. There was also evidence that female ICSI children may have higher 2D:4D than female controls. Perturbations in finger length in ICSI children may be inherited from their fathers and, in the case of boys, could be associated with lower fertility and reduced sexual attractiveness. For ICSI females, increased 2D:4D may be associated with increased fertility.

Ontogeny of knuckle-walking hand postures in African apes

Examination of the ontogeny of hominoid hands indicates that the majority of differences observed among adult bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas in the gross proportions of the hand are allometric due to ontogenetic scaling (Inouye, 1992). However, ray segment lengths depart from this pattern, resulting in relatively shorter fingers in the gorilla hand compared to the hands of chimpanzees and bonobos of comparable sizes. Furthermore, as adults and throughout ontogeny the fifth metacarpal is shorter than the second, third and fourth metacarpals in bonobos and chimpanzees, whereas gorillas have metacarpals which are more similar in length (Susman, 1979; Inouye, 1992). In addition, qualitative descriptions of knuckle-walking (Tuttle, 1967, 1969a,b,c; Tuttle & Basmajian, 1978) suggest that chimpanzees and gorillas use different hand postures and appear to bear their weight on different digits. Therefore, ontogenetic, descriptive kinematic data was taken from videotapes of knuckle-walking by chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, and analysed to determine if differences among the African apes in length of the fifth digit was meaningfully correlated with variation in hand positions in load-bearing postures. Results indicate that throughout ontogeny there is no significant change in the frequency of use of digits II-V during knuckle-walking in all the African ape species. During ontogeny, chimpanzees and bonobos use their fifth digits consistently less often than the other digits when knuckle-walking, and comparisons between chimpanzees and bonobos reveal no significant difference in the frequencies of digits used during knuckle-walking. Gorillas, in contrast, use all four digits consistently in knuckle-walking postures throughout ontogeny, and comparative analyses reveal that the gorilla pattern is significantly different from the chimpanzee/bonobo pattern as adults and throughout ontogeny. Thus, metacarpal lengths and the comparative lengths among manual rays of the same hand are not a product of simple ontogenetic scaling between chimpanzees/bonobos and gorillas and instead, appear to be related to interspecific differences in hand postures used during knuckle-walking. These data, when considered with previous allometric data on other postcranial dimensions, indicate that differences between Pan and Gorilla in proportions of the hand may not be related to differences in weight distribution between forelimbs and hindlimbs or to differences in the frequency of knuckle-walking behavior. Rather, differences between Pan and Gorilla hand proportions are more likely related to kinematic differences in knuckle-walking behavior, increased efficiency of knuckle-walking in the latter, or perhaps to other locomotor behaviors, such as climbing.