Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P J Key.
As conflict and suffering in Bosnia, Chechnya, Rwanda, and Zaire continue to be at the forefront of world attention, some countries seem to be largely forgotten. It is timely to take stock of conditions in the small country of Cambodia as it struggles to take its place after a long period of isolation. Countless Cambodians and ethic Vietnamese have died there this year and during the past 25 years, victims of senseless killing or preventable disease.
In the late nineteenth century Franz Boas was responsible for assembling anthropometric data from North Amerindians. Approximately 15,000 subjects were measured, but the data have never been systematically analyzed. Here we describe our efforts to develop a computerized database from Boas's data and present the first systematic analysis of these data. In addition to a general analysis of North Amerindian anthropometric variation, we also present a more detailed analysis of anthropometric variation among tribes located in the American Northwest. In the general analysis we find that anthropometric variation is strongly patterned along geographic lines. We examine geographic and language patterning by grouping tribes by culture area and language phylum. Both have high explanatory power, culture area being the higher. The Northwest analysis shows that both language and geographic location are important in explaining anthropometric variation.
We have implemented a multivariate statistical methodology to assess the degree and pattern of cranial variability in skeletal samples. Specifically, the method is designed to test whether variability in a skeletal sample exceeds "normal within-group variability" defined in the present instance as variability present among crania from a cemetery associated with a village. It involves comparing a covariance matrix derived from a sample of unknown composition to one representing "normal within-group variability." The method has been applied to two Plains Indian craniometric samples. The Leavenworth site (39CO9) represents the remnants of previously autonomous Arikara Indian villages devastated by epidemic diseases in the late 1700s. The Bad River 2 Phase is an archaeological designation grouping together closely related sites in the Bad-Cheyenne region of South Dakota dating from 1740-1795 AD. We were able to show substantial heterogeneity among crania from Leavenworth. District burial areas at Leavenworth account for some of the heterogeneity, supporting the notion that they represent an attempt to maintain former social distinctions. We were unable to differentiate among sites within the Bad River 2 Phase, suggesting that it is a valid biological unit.
Measurements have been made of the spectral emission and irradiance from whole body ultraviolet irradiation units used in the treatment of psoriasis by photochemotherapy (PUVA). A total of ten units were studied, located at nine different treatment centres in England. The results showed that within the limits of experimental accuracy there was no significant difference in the profile of all spectra measured, although the measured value of irradiance compared with each centre's own UV-A meter showed wide discrepancies. There is poor documentation provided by manufacturers of UV-A meters on the meaning of the scale reading in mWcm-2, and it would seem expedient that some agreed calibration procedure for these instruments is forthcoming.