Quantitative finger dermatoglyphics in a Spanish population (Tierra de Campos)

This study deals with the finger ridge counts and the distribution of their frequencies drawn from a Spanish sample consisting of 833 school-children (417 males and 416 females), which has been collected from the geographical area of Tierra de Campos. Paired t-test and Student-t-test were used to explore bimanual and sexual differences, respectively. The results showed: a bimanual asymmetry marked by significantly higher right hand ridge count for thumb and index pairs in both males and females, ridge counts of males are always higher than the corresponding values of females; the differences being significant excepting for right and left index and for left ring-finger. The frequency distribution of TFRC was slightly, but significantly, different from normality only in males, as Kolmogorov test showed. A great homogeneity between values for TFRC of males and females from Tierra de Campos and those of the available Spanish and Portuguese populations has been found, the values being high not only in the variation ranges of the Spanish and Portuguese populations, but also in the ranges reported for other European populations.     

Inheritance of finger pattern types in MZ and DZ twins

Digital patterns of a sample on twins were analyzed to estimate the resemblance between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins and to evaluate the mode of inheritance by the use of maximum likelihood based variance decomposition analysis. MZ twin resemblance of finger pattern types appears to be more pronounced than in DZ twins, which suggests the presence of genetic factors in the forming of fingertip patterns. The most parsimonious model shows twin resemblance in count of all three basic finger patterns on 10 fingers. It has significant dominant genetic variance component across all fingers. In the general model, the dominant genetic variance component proportion is similar for all fingertips (about 60%) and the sibling environmental variance is significantly nonzero, but the proportion between additive and dominant variance components was different. Application of genetic model fitting technique of segregation analyses clearly shows mode of inheritance. A dominant genetic variance component or a specific genetic system modifies the phenotypic expression of the fingertip patterns. The present study provided evidence of strong genetic component in finger pattern types and seems more informative compared to the earlier traditional method of correlation analysis.     

Microbial population and biochemical changes in fermenting finger millet (Eleusine coracana)

Natural fermentation of finger millet (Eleusine coracana) was carried out for 48 h. Microbiological and chemical analysis was performed throughout the fermentation process. The fermentation was heterolactic dominated by lactic acid bacteria accompanied by the production of lactic and acetic acids with decrease in pH and increase in titratable acidity. The microbial population increased until 18 to 24 h accompanied by a rapid decrease in total and reducing sugars. The microflora stabilized between 24 and 48 h, during which time the total and -amylase activities increased with accumulation of sugars. Total free amino acids also increased. Yeast counts were low and moulds and coliforms were absent. Repeated fermentations showed consistency in the qualitative and quantitative changes in microflora. Five predominant types of bacteria, strains belonging to Leuconostoc, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus were identified. Of these only one type, Pediococcus, dominated (>80%) in the latter half of fermentation.     

Incidence of malaria in a wintering population of canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) on Chesapeake Bay

Canvasback ducks wintering on Chesapeake Bay had a 6% incidence of Leucocytozoon simondi and 2% incidence of Haemoproteus. Subinoculation of whole blood into Pekin ducklings produced a Plasmodium infection rate of 31%. Females were more frequently infected (12/22) than males (15/68). The parasite was identified as P. circumflexum.     

Incidence of aneuploidy in a human population

A population of 40,371 individuals consisting of every baby delivered at two Denver hospitals from 1964 to 1974 has been screened from aneuploidy of the sex chromosomes and chromosome 21. The pattern in time with which aneuploidy occurs suggests an epidemic component of the incidence superimposed on an approximately equal constant frequency. The epidemic incidence is most likely to be high for births from May to October, to persist for several consecutive years, and then to be absent for several consecutive years.     

Seasonality of births and family characteristics in a Spanish population

The seasonality of births in the period 1871-1977 is studied in a rural north-western Spanish population. Based on a total sample of 11,695 birth registrations, temporal variation is analysed. For siblings, according to family reconstitution, the total family size, the legitimacy of the child, and birth order are considered. A coefficient of birth month dispersion is defined and estimated for each family. Intra-family variation is related to inter-family coefficients in order to determine whether the local seasonal pattern of births may be partly explained by family characteristics.     

Psychometric analysis of behavior pattern A in the Spanish population and its relationship with personality variables

As a first step in the epidemiological study for CHD prevention among the Spanish population, the authors have analyzed two of the instruments for the assessment of the behavior pattern A (JAS and Bortner questionnaires). From a student sample (n = 302), a factor analysis of items and scales was made, relating pattern A scores to Eysenck's personality variables (EPQ). The importance of an accurate psychometric study of pattern A was emphasized, in order to select A subjects as specifically as possible.     

Mating pattern and PGI variation in a natural population of the isopod Sphaeroma rugicauda (Leach)

Samples of mating and non-mating animals from a natural population of the estuarine isopod Sphaeroma rugicauda showed no evidence of assortative mating or sexual selection for the three genotypes at the phosphoglucose isomerase locus.     

Incidence of pigmented skin tumors in a population of wild Montseny brook newt (Calotriton arnoldi)

We report the presence of pigmented skin tumors in three populations of the endangered amphibian Montseny brook newt, Calotriton arnoldi, one of the European amphibian species with the smallest distribution range (40 km(2) in the Montseny Natural Park, Catalonia, Spain). Examination of one of the tumors by light microscopy was consistent with chromatophoroma and was most suggestive of a melanophoroma. Tumors were not found in juveniles. In adults, only two of three populations were affected. The proportions of males and females affected were not significantly different, but there was a positive correlation between body size and presence of tumors in both sexes. The etiology of chromatophoromas remains unknown but, in our study, they do not appear to have been caused by water quality or Ultraviolet B.     

Physico-chemical characteristics of a permanent Spanish hypersaline lake: La Salada de Chiprana (NE Spain)

La Salada de Chiprana Lake, located in the Ebro River basin, northeastern Spain, is the only permanent and deep water hypersaline ecosystem in all of western Europe. With a total surface of 31 ha and a maximum depth of 5.6 m, it has several basins bounded by elongated sandstone-bodies or ribbons which are paleochannels of Miocene age. Its salinity varied from 30 to 73 g 1^–1 during the 1989 hydrological cycle and the most abundant ions were magnesium and sulphate. Depth-time distributions of major physico-chemical variables demonstrated that the lake was stratified in two distinctive layers during most of the year. The chemocline disappeared only in October, with the complete overturn of the water column. In the deep water, three conditions occurred which allowed development of green sulphur bacteria populations: (1) oxygen depletion, (2) presence of hydrogen sulphide and (3) presence of light. Benthic microbial mats covered the sediments of shallow shores of moderate slope.     

Ethnobotanical resources in the province of almeria,Spain: Campos de Nijar

An ethnobotanical study was carried out in the region of Campos de Níjar, comprising Cabo de Gata-Níjar Nature Park and neighboring zones. The geology of the region combined with its location in the South East of the Iberian Peninsula, the most arid area of Europe, has resulted in the presence of a flora rich in endemic and North African elements rare in Europe. Socioculturally, it is a uniform region characterized by its population living in a multitude of nuclei, each with few inhabitants. The field work was based on 221 interviews with inhabitants of the region with knowledge of the plants and their uses. Information was compiled on the use of 253 taxa with a total of 558 medicinal and 240 other uses. We present a summary of the study with data on the uses of 98 species mentioned at least three times by the interviewees.     

Parallelism between the frequencies of differently oriented whorls and other pattern types in Basque population

In a sample from the Biscaian Basque population, we studied the incidence of pattern types in fingers and the parallelism between the frequencies for the orientations of whorls (Wr, Ws, Wu) and the other pattern types (Lr, A, Lu). We reaffirm the importance of clarifying pattern types according to their orientation, which is of general use in the case of loops but less easily applied to whorls.     

A rare dermatoglyphic finger pattern in a Canadian kindred.

A Canadian three generation pedigree is presented where a woman has a rare radial loop plus radial loop pattern on the second digit of her left hand and her son has the same rare configuration on the same digit. We hope that this pedigree will encourage others to search for pattern configurations beyond the conventional arch-loop-whorl divisions.     

Two types of partial fertility in a diploid population of the fern Thelypteris decursive-pinnata (Thelypteridaceae)

Two types of abnormal sporophytes were observed in a population of diploid Thelypteris decursive-pinnata. Most sporophytes in this population exhibited regular chromosome pairing, resulting in the formation of 30 bivalents in meiosis I; however, they produced abortive spores to various degrees. Some formed large globose spores at low frequencies, most likely to be unreduced diplospores. The other type of abnormal sporophyte underwent synaptic failure to form 60 univalents at meiosis I, but produced fertile spores, mostly large globose ones at low frequencies. The globose spores were considered unreduced diplospores because the gametophytes arising from them produced tetraploid sporophytes by gametophytic selfing. One tetraploid formed only univalents at meiosis I. Allozyme variation was not detected in this population, although neighboring ordinary diploid populations exhibited it to a certain degree. The sympatric occurrence and allozyme uniformity of the two groups suggest that both are offspring of a founder sporophyte, which may have possessed two types of mutated recessive genes responsible for the spore sterility and the synaptic failure in meiosis. Unreduced spores formed by these two types may play an important role in the polyploid speciation of this species.