Relation of fertility to religious affiliation and to church attendance in Ann Arbor,Michigan, 1951–54

Abstract

A sample of urban Canadian adults who were interviewed and medically examined provided the basis for an exploration of the relation between political behavior and physical stature, general health, and stress. People active in communal and protest political activities showed more stress than, but were otherwise similar to, people who did not participate in such activities. In particular, political actives who were not confident about their effectiveness showed signs of even more stress. People who participated in campaign activities were similar to inactives with respect to signs of stress and general health, but were of smaller stature.     

Assortive mating for personaltiy traits, educational level, religious affiliation, height, weight, adn body mass index in parents of Korean twin sample.

The degree of assortative mating for psychological and physical traits in Asian societies in relatively unknown. The present study examined assortative mating for educational level, personality traits, religious affiliation, height, weight, and body mass index in a korean sample. Age-adjusted spouse correlations were high for educational level (r = .63) and religious affiliation (r = .67), modest for most personality traits (rs = -.01 to .26), and trivial for height (r = .04), weight (r = .05)m and body mass index (r = .11). These results were remarkably similar to those found from the western samples. Implications of the present findings in behavior genetic studies and human mating patterns were briefly discussed.     

The religious affiliation and anti-Semitism of secondary school-age Swedish youths: an analysis of survey data from 2003 and 2009

Not only Swedish studies, but also several international studies, claim an increase in anti-Semitic attitudes in recent decades. As prejudice is acquired in the early years of socialization, and/or is innate and fairly stable over the life cycle, examining adolescents’ attitudes is vitally important. Hence, by controlling for individual demographic and socio-economic background factors, we study two interrelated questions: Has anti-Semitism among Swedish secondary school-age youths changed between 2003 and 2009? Are changes equal across groups, with a specific focus on religious groups? Using two unique cross-section surveys of secondary school-age students in Sweden for the years 2003 and 2009, we try to address the above questions. Our analysis shows, in contrast to the views of the general public and other related studies, that anti-Semitism has decreased slightly during the examined period. Moreover, the study finds a variation in anti-Semitism by religious affiliation: it has increased among Muslim youth, but remains stable in other groups.     

Consanguineous marriages in diocesis of Brno,Czechoslovakia

Summary The frequency of consanguineous marriages in our country which has been evaluated with regard to the corresponding time period does not differ on the whole from the data given for the European populations. The relatively higher frequency of consanguineous marriages in the years before the World War II was due to the greater endogamy among the German inhabitans especially in the frontier areas. The continuous decrease of the frequency of consanguineous marriages reveals the trend of our population to the panmixia. As the decrease of consanguinity rate in time is significant we recommend to use the data from the corresponding time period in calculating the genetic parameters.

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Zusammenfassung Die Häufigkeit von Verwandteneben in unserem Lande, die in Abhängigkeit von der Zeit zusammengestellt wurde, unterscheidet sich nicht von der Häufigkeit bei anderen europäischen Bevölkerungen. Die etwas höhere Häufigkeit in den Jahren vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg war auf eine höhere Endogamie in der deutschen Bevölkerung der Grenzgebiete zurückzuführen. Ein kontinuierlicher Abfall der Häufigkeit zeigt den Trend zur Panmixie in unserer Bevölkerung. Da dieser Abfall statistisch signifikant ist, empfehlen wir die Benutzung von Daten aus gleichen Zeitabschnitten für die Berechnung der genetischen Parameter.

     

The influence of social affiliation on individual vocal signatures of northern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Northern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) live in highly stable groups and use group-specific vocal signals, but individual variation in calls has not been described previously. A towed beam-forming array was used to ascribe stereotyped pulsed calls with two independently modulated frequency contours to visually identified individual killer whales in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia. Overall, call similarity determined using neural networks differed significantly between different affiliation levels for both frequency components of all the call types analysed. This method distinguished calls from individuals within the same matriline better than different calls produced by a single individual and better than by chance. The calls of individuals from different matrilines were more distinctive than those within the same matriline, confirming previous studies based on group recordings. These results show that frequency contours of stereotyped calls differ among the individuals that are constantly associated with each other and use group-specific vocalizations, though across-group differences were substantially more pronounced.     

Consanguineous marriages in the province of Antalya, Turkey

To assess the trends in the frequency and the medical effects of consanguinity in the south coast of Turkish population using local and national data in the last 11 years. This cross-sectional study was carried out in Manavgat province, which is a major tourism center on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The authors studied consanguineous marriages in rural and urban population in the Mediterranean coast, Manavgat province, Turkey, via a 1500 random survey sample of married couples. There has been a significant increase in the incidence of consanguineous marriages in rural areas (40.7%) since 1989 in the southern population of Turkey. The results showed that the most frequent type of marriage was between the first cousins. It is found that there is no statistically significant difference between the consanguineous and non-consanguineous marriages in the different age groups. The results were discussed on the basis of educational status, reasons for having consanguineous marriages and the general medical effects as well as with the relation of congenital malformations. The custom of consanguineous unions in the Mediterranean population of Turkey is still extremely high, and preventive measures should be done to decrease its frequency and associated complications.     

The border effect in surname structure: an Italian-Slovenian case study

Population surname structure in northeastern Italy municipalities, in which small Slovenian-speaking groups are present, are compared with neighboring populations of both Italian and Slovenian nationality. In the early 20th century those municipalities were part of the Italian territory and underwent a massive Italianization process that led to the mutation of the original Slovenian surnames into a derived Italian form. In order to track surname relationships among the examined communities, two different similarity analyses were performed: the first using the surnames as they are recorded in the Italian and Slovenian official telephone directories, and the second restoring the Italianized Slovenian surnames to their original form and then recalculating the populations' similarity. Both comparisons evidence a separation that depends on nationality, which is less marked after restoring surnames to their original form. Geographical elements, older historical events, and socioeconomic traits allow interpretation of these results.     

The influence of climate on morphometric traits of fossil populations of Microtus arvalis and M. agrestis from the Carpathian Basin,northern Hungary

In this study, we analysed morphometrically fossil populations of Microtus arvalis and M. agrestis from eight late Middle to Late Pleistocene archaeological and palaeontological sites in the Carpathian Basin, northern Hungary. The intra‐ and interspecific variations in both species can be related to climatic oscillations linked to the onset of the Eemian interglacial and the first phases of Marine Isotope Stage 5. The size of M. agrestis can be correlated with the presence/absence of relatively humid climatic and environmental conditions and of surface water resources (such as marshes and flooded areas). A possible immigration event of M. arvalis populations into the Carpathian Basin, also related to the Eemian interglacial, is also identified.     

The influence of load repetition in bone mechanotransduction using poroelastic finite-element models: the impact of permeability

Experimental evidence suggests that interstitial fluid flow is a stimulus for mechanoadaptation in bone. Bone adaptation is sensitive to the frequency of loading and rest insertion between load cycles. We investigated the effects of permeability, frequency and rest insertion on fluid flow in bone using finite-element models to understand how these parameters affect the mechanical stimulus. A simplified 3D poroelastic finite-element model of a beam in bending was developed, in order to simulate the behavior of interstitial fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular system of mouse cortical bone. Two different load sets were considered: (1) a continuous haversine sinusoid, with frequency ranging from 1 to 30 Hz, and (2) a 10 Hz haversine with rest-insertion times ranging from 0 to 10 s. For both load sets, a range of intrinsic permeability from $10^{-23}$ to $10^{-18}\, \mathrm m^2 $ was tested, and fluid flow was determined. Models with permeabilities down to $10^{-21}\, \mathrm m^2 $ follow a dose–response relationship between fluid flow and sinusoidal frequency. Smaller orders of magnitude of permeability proved to be relatively insensitive to frequency. Our results also suggest that there is a minimum time of rest between load cycles that is required to maximize fluid motion, which depends on the order of magnitude of the intrinsic permeability. We show that frequency and rest insertion may be optimized to deliver maximal mechanical stimulus as a function of permeability.