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This special symposium volume of the SSHB explores the biological effects of human isolation and migration, and how the situations to which they give rise help to elucidate a variety of biological problems, ranging from evolutionary change to disease etiology. The majority of the case studies presented here are by Asian investigators, and provide a uniquely accessible source of information. Besides documenting the results, the book illustrates the different methods employed in such studies. It will be invaluable to those contemplating similar investigations elsewhere, and will be of interest to researchers in a range of disciplines including epidemiology, clinical medicine, demography, anthropology, genetics and evolutionary biology.
This volume considers the genetic variability of human populations, particularly in the tropics: its origins and maintenance, and its contribution to the phenotypic variability of complex characters. The first section deals with the ways of analysing genetic variation and provides a valuable review of relevant developments in molecular biology. The origin and maintenance of genetic diversity is considered in the second section with data presented for Pacific, African, Asian and Central American populations. The final section concerns characters in which the genetic contribution to variability is complex and shows how such characters may be used to elucidate biological problems of affinity and differentiation, of adaptation and survival. Published as part of the Decade of the Tropics research programme of the International Union of Biological Sciences, this volume will be of particular interest to human geneticists, physical and biological anthropologists.
This two-day symposium in the annual Society for the Study of Human Biology Symposium Series covers a wide spectrum of growth physiology, and presents a state-of-the-art review of human auxology, from factors affecting cellular growth, through nutritional factors affecting the growth of the infant, to endocrine and other factors affecting the growth of the child before and after adolescence. Wiith contributions from some of the leading workers in the various fields, the book starts with a consideration of the effects of experimental removal of parts of mouse embryos on final body size and the part played by local tissue interactions in the specification of limb segments in insects. Discussion of the growth-promoting actions of the somatomedins in foetal, post-natal and brain growth follow, leading to two chapters on Man, dealing with energy requirements and body composition in infants, and the endocrine control of body size and sexual development during puberty.
Physical activity and exercise affect many dimensions of health. This book presents a wide-ranging account of the key issues of the biology of physical activity and health. The context is set by considering the comparative and temporal aspects of activity in humans. There follows an examination of the concepts and methodological issues associated with activity, exercise, health and fitness, as well as their interrelationships. Particular attention is given to activity in children, adolescents and the elderly, activity and weight maintenance, and the psychological effects of activity. This topical volume will be of interest to human biologists, biological anthropologists, human physiologists, sports scientists, psychologists, and healthcare professionals involved in preventative medicine, public health, geriatrics, occupational health and community medicine.
The processes that control senescence have been the subject of more then a century of serious biological research. Two institutions closely involved in this programme, the Society for the Study of Human Biology and the British Society for Research in Ageing, held a joint symposium in 1984 to consider human ageing and longevity from an interdisciplinary point of view. The resulting book has four main sections: the evolution and genetics of ageing, biological age assessment, demographic and social aspects, and the nutritional and physiological aspects of ageing and longevity. The fundamental nature of the subject will generate interest across a wide range of biological and medical disciplines.
Working capacity is the physiological key to understanding man's ability, in technically less advanced communities, to exploit his environment, and hence to understanding his role in the ecological balance. In this volume the knowledge of working capacity in tropical populations is reviewed in a series of illustrative papers. Topics cover the measurement of working capacity in populations: the functional consequences of malnutrition; growth, size and muscular efficiency; ethnic differences in working capacity; energy; expenditure and endemic disease; and energy flow in tropical ecosystems. These papers and their ensuing discussions lead to a series of recommendations on studies to be incorporated in the Decade of the Tropics research programme of the International Union of Biological Sciences.
Fertility in animals reflects access to scarce resources, such as food and territory. In humans the situation is more complex. Patterns of breast feeding, contraception and ideas about age at marriage and desired family size all affect fertility. The relation between these and access to scarce resources such as housing and employment, via income, education and other factors that affect status, is explored. In this book, the gap between socio-ecology and population demography is bridged, by showing how animals and humans adjust their fertility to environmental conditions.
Seasonality has effects on a wide range of human functions and activities, and is important in the understanding of human-environment relationships. In this volume, distinguished contributors including human biologists, anthropologists, physiologists and nutritionists consider many of the different ways in which seasonality influences human biology and behaviour. Topics addressed include the influence of seasonality on hominid evolution, seasonal climatic effects on human physiology, fertility and physical growth, seasonality in morbidity, mortality and nutritional state, and seasonal factors in food production, modernization and work organization in Third World economies. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in human biology, anthropology and nutrition.
Over seventy per cent of the population in industrialized nations live in cities; soon, so will most of the world's population. This volume examines the impact of urban living on human health and biology. Cities pose numerous and diverse social and biological challenges to human populations which bear little resemblance to the forces that moulded human biology through millions of years of evolution. Urban populations in industrialized nations have distinctive patterns of behaviour, social stratification, stress, infectious disease, diet, activity and exposure to pollutants from years of industrialization. These features affect diverse aspects of human function including human nutrition, energy expenditure, growth and reproduction. This volume begins with an introduction to the history of urbanism and poverty, infectious disease, reproductive function, child health, nutrition, physical activity and psychosocial stress. The book will appeal to workers in urban planning, human biology, anthropology, preventative medicine, human ecology and related areas.
This volume looks at the relationship between specific aspects of Third World cities and human health. Rapid and extensive urbanization of the less developed nations is perhaps the most dramatic demographic phenomenon of our times, but its impact on human biology is not well understood. Here, a cross-section of work is presented on this subject allowing human biologists, urban planners, public health workers and other specialists to assess our knowledge and the current approaches available to increase it. Contributions fall into two groups: studies of urban ecology including the social, economic and physical domains, and studies of biological responses to the urban environment. Health is not merely the absence of specific diseases, but is construed more broadly to include a wide range of biological parameters that are correlated with various states of sub-optimal health. These include patterns of child growth and development, frequencies of specific diseases, nutritional status, immunological characteristics and physiological parameters. This important volume will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and academics, including human biologists, anthropologists, healthcare professionals, human geographers, urban and regional planners, and economists.
Considerable attention is being paid to the use of molecular evidence in studies of human diversity and origins. Much of the early work was based on evidence from mitochondrial DNA, but this has been supplemented by important information from nuclear DNA from both the Y chromosomes and the autosomes. The bulk of the material available is also from living populations, but this is being extended by the study of DNA from archaic populations. The underlying models used in interpreting this evidence are developments of the neutral theory of molecular evolution, but also consider the possible role of selection. This 1996 volume brings together evidence from an international group of research workers. It will be an important reference for researchers in human biology, molecular biology and genetics alike.
Body composition studies are used in a wide variety of fields including human biology, medicine, sports science, epidemiology and nutrition. They may be used to predict later body composition from childhood measures, bone density loss in athletes under heavy training regimes or in the elderly, to assess obesity in children and adults, and to investigate the likely effects of malnutrition. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the field of body composition, together with rapid development of a whole new range of assessment techniques. In this volume, newer and older techniques are evaluated, and developments and aims are discussed. The chapters assume little background knowledge, and will therefore be invaluable to nutritionists, biologists, clinicians and medical physicists alike.
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