Francis E Johnston
Biographic Data
| ID | 77196 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Francis E Johnston |
| GIVEN NAMES | Francis E |
| FAMILY NAME | Johnston |
| SIGNATURE | JOHNSTON F E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 58 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 273 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 58 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1961 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
History of Human Biology in the United States of America
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Human Biology and its History Major Divisions of American Human Biology Chapter Summary References Cited Recommended Readings
James Mourilyan Tanner (1920–2010)
Death expectancy
In this brief Viewpoint, the author argues that the common understanding of average life expectancy in any given country is an inappropriate measure in relation to development, since among AIDS-affected populations it fails to differentiate between significantly different life spans, depending on whether or not a person contracts the disease
Patterns of Human Growth
Patterns of Human Growth. Barry Bogin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.455 pp
Social and Economic Equality
Article based on a paper present ed at the meetin g of the European Anthropological Association Jena, Germany, September, 1998.
Secular changes in stature, weight, fatness, overweight, and obesity in urban African American adolescents from the mid-1950's to the mid-1990's
The prevalence of obesity among American children and adults has increased over the past few decades. This paper reports secular changes in stature, weight, and fatness in three groups of urban African American adolescents between 11 and 15 years of age of comparable socioeconomic status, ethnic background, and region measured in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1990's. Adolescents measured in the 1990's were heavier and only somewhat taller than those me…
Long Bone Growth in Infants and Children
Long Bone Growth in Infants and Children
Problems in the aging of skeletal juveniles
We employ samples of children of known chronological age to demonstrate the significance of random and systematic effects on maturation in both dental and skeletal development. Differences between chronological age for dental age in young healthy Canadian children can be as much as 100% of the actual age of the children. For skeletal development by reference to Greulich-Pyle standards, three samples of known-age children from Mexico document para…
Growth faltering and catch‐up growth in relation to environmental change in children of a disadvantaged community from Guatemala City
The extent and persistence of stunting and growth status across a 10‐year period, and their relationship to changes in the home environment, have been analyzed using data from a 10‐year longitudinal study of three birth cohorts, seen initially at 3, 5, and 7 years and examined annually thereafter. The children came from an economically disadvantaged community located on the periphery of Guatemala City. The sample used in the analysis consisted of…
Elizabeth Smithgall Watts‐Parrish (1941–1994)
Physical growth, nutritional status, and dietary intake of African‐American middle school students from Philadelphia
As part of an integrated program of academically based participatory action research, measurements of nutritional status and dietary intakes were collected from 11‐ to 15‐year‐old African‐American youth attending an innercity Philadelphia middle school. Statures and weights were collected on 136 individuals and 24‐hr recalls, distributed across the week, on 113. Using the U.S. reference data, statures were not significantly different from U.S. ag…
Application of the Preece‐Baines growth model to cross‐sectional data
The Preece‐Baines growth model (PBGM) is a family of curves that conform to the shape of the human growth curve. It is most often used to analyze longitudinal records on individuals, but it can be applied to cross‐sectional data from population surveys. The purpose of this study was to determine empirically the validity of applying the PBGM to cross‐sectional data to make inferences about the timing and nature of the adolescent growth spurt. Long…
Body fat patterning in rural South African black children
Growth status, body fatness, and fat patterning were investigated in two cross‐sectional samples of rural South African Black children 6–19 years of age. The results were compared to data for American Blacks who were part of the NHANES survey. The two South African samples differed consistently, although rarely significantly, but both were smaller, lighter, and less fat than American Blacks. Analyses of triceps, biceps, subscapular, and suprailia…
Skinfold thicknesses, body circumferences and their relationship to age, sex, and socioeconomic status in adults from Northwest India
Subcutaneous fatness, measured anthropometrically, was analyzed in a sample of 651 males and females, 18–49 years of age, of high and low socioeconomic status (SES) from the Chandigarh zone of Northwest India. There were significant differences between lower and upper SES males and females. In general, all groups tend to show increases in indicators of fatness between the 18–29 and the 30–39 year age groups. However, there was less consistency ac…
Fatness and fat pattering in 12–17‐year‐old youth from the Chandigarh zone of Northwest India
Fatness and fat patterning were studied in a sample of 502 youth, 12–17 years of age, of high and low socioeconomic status (SES) from the Chandigarh Zone of northwest India. Fatness estimates were based on six skinfolds, while fat patterning was analyzed through the centripetal fat and waist/hip ratios, and through principal components of skinfolds. In all analyses, fat patterns were adjusted for general body fatness. Upper SES subjects were larg…
Age, sex and socioeconomic correlates of fat patterning among adults from the Chandigarh zone of northwest India
Fat patterns were derived from principal-component analysis of skinfolds and circumferences of 651 northwest Indian adults 18-49 years of age of high and low socioeconomic class. All measurements were corrected for absolute size prior to the analysis. As described in other ethnic groups, two patterns emerged: trunk/extremity and upper/lower body, based upon skinfolds and circumferences respectively. There was a general trend towards increases wit…
Socioeconomic correlates of fertility, mortality, and child survival in mothers from a disadvantaged, urban Guatemalan community
Social and economic determinants of fertility, mortality, and child survival were studied in a sample of 519 mothers from EL Progreso, a disadvantaged community located on the outskirts of Guatemala city. Fertility (children ever‐born) and mortality (number of children who had died postnatally) data were obtained from interviews, along with data on the characteristics of the mothers, fathers, and the households. Contraceptive use was recorded on …
Wilton Marion Kroogman
Interaction of nutritional and socioeconomic status as determinants of cognitive development in disadvantaged urban Guatemalan children
The relationship between nutritional status, measured by height for age, and cognition, measured by WISC full‐scale IQ, was studied in a longitudinal sample of 459 urban Guatemalan children, aged 4–9 years, from a disadvantaged community of the fringe of Guatemala City, examined annually over a 3 year period. Socioeconomic status (SES) was controlled by developing a composite index for each home. The mean IQ differed significantly from the lowest…
Anthropometry and the Assessment of Nutritional Status
One of the important tasks of biomedical anthropologists is the evaluation of the health level of the communities they study, as well as the individuals residing in them. There are three major purposes of this task:1) to assess the general well-being of a group or an individual; 2) to determine the response of a group or individual to a specific stress or change in the environment; 3) to evaluate the response of individuals or groups to a planned…
Interobserver reliability of skinfold measurements in infants and young children
Interobserver reliabilities were determined for the triceps, biceps, subscapular, suprailiac, and abdominal skinfolds in 77 children, 9–24 months of age. Technical errors of measurement (replicate variances) and coefficients of variation were compared to data on 12–17‐year‐olds from the U.S. Health Examination Survey (HES) to 2.5–7‐year‐old Guatamalan children. Of the five skinfolds, the between‐observer variation was not significantly different …
Directional asymmetry of body dimensions among white adolescents
Asymmetry of paired dimensions has been recognized as a methodological problem in anthropometry and more recently as an indicator of environmental stress. This study seeks to determine the extent of directional asymmetry for some of the measurements commonly made in anthropometry. Upper arm circumference, biepicondylar breadth, triceps and subscapular skinfolds, bicondylar breadth of the femur, and calf circumference were measured on right and le…
Science, Nutrition, Fat, and Policy
Supplementation of the diets of pregnant and nursing mothers in underdeveloped countries is sometimes criticized because more food for these women is seen as producing more body fat, shortened postpartum amenorrhea, and increased fertility. We argue that the link between body fat and shortened postpartum amenorrhea is based on a hypothesis that has not been corroborated. The critical-fat hypothesis is that menarche, maintenance of menstrual cycle…
Body composition and temperature regulation in newborns
Growth of the long bones of infants and young children at Indian Knoll
Hereditary and environmental determinants of growth in height in a longitudinal sample of children and youth of Guatemalan and European ancestry
The effects of hereditary and environmental factors upon the growth in stature of children living in Guatemala City has been studied. Heights at yearly examinations were fitted, by individual, to a double logistic curve in samples of Guatemalan and European children attending a private school in Guatemala City. These two samples differed genetically yet shared the same environment. Their growth was compared, by a multivariate analysis of the para…
The reassessment of the age and sex of the Indian Knoll skeletal population
Morbidity and growth of infants and young children in a rural Mexican village
The relationship between childhood illnesses and growth increments in length and weight was investigated in a 13-month birth cohort of rural Mexican children. Increments in length and weight for each year from birth to three years were related to high and low frequencies of reported time ill during the same period. Seventy-two of the 276 children had already been characterized as exhibiting "growth failure" relative to other members of the cohort…
Bioanthropological Research in Developing Countries
In recent years the number of biological anthropologists involved in research in developing countries has increased. This upsurge of interest can be traced in part to an increased awareness of the problems faced by populations in these countries and to an increased realization that anthropologists are well equipped to address those problems. Though the problems themselves are not new, the emphasis on short-term adaptation is new. Physical anthrop…
Directional asymmetry of body dimensions among white adolescents
Asymmetry of paired dimensions has been recognized as a methodological problem in anthropometry and more recently as an indicator of environmental stress. This study seeks to determine the extent of directional asymmetry for some of the measurements commonly made in anthropometry. Upper arm circumference, biepicondylar breadth, triceps and subscapular skinfolds, bicondylar breadth of the femur, and calf circumference were measured on right and le…
Interaction of nutritional and socioeconomic status as determinants of cognitive development in disadvantaged urban Guatemalan children
The relationship between nutritional status, measured by height for age, and cognition, measured by WISC full‐scale IQ, was studied in a longitudinal sample of 459 urban Guatemalan children, aged 4–9 years, from a disadvantaged community of the fringe of Guatemala City, examined annually over a 3 year period. Socioeconomic status (SES) was controlled by developing a composite index for each home. The mean IQ differed significantly from the lowest…
Physical growth of St. Lawrence Island Eskimos
Growth patterns of body size, proportion, and composition were analyzed in 57 male and 56 female Eskimos from St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, ranging in age from 1.23 through 19.82 years. Age‐groups means for whites and blacks of the U.S. Health Examination Survey served as reference data. Relative to HES data, the Eskimo sample were shorter with lower values for leg length, while there were no differences from the reference values for sit…
The relationship of body fat weight, determined densitometrically, to relative weight and triceps skinfold in American youths, 12–17 years of age
The relationship between fat weight, measured densitometrically, and the triceps skinfold and Quetelet's Index has been analyzed by means of linear regression analysis of 235 American youths, 12–17 years of age; 48 males and 41 females were from Minneapolis and 121 males and 25 females from the Greater Philadelphia area. Validation was accomplished by using the results of 10 separate regression analysis, each on 90% of the sample, the remaining 1…
Science, Nutrition, Fat, and Policy
Supplementation of the diets of pregnant and nursing mothers in underdeveloped countries is sometimes criticized because more food for these women is seen as producing more body fat, shortened postpartum amenorrhea, and increased fertility. We argue that the link between body fat and shortened postpartum amenorrhea is based on a hypothesis that has not been corroborated. The critical-fat hypothesis is that menarche, maintenance of menstrual cycle…
Growth status of disadvantaged urban Guatemalan children of a resettled community
This paper reports the physical growth and body composition from the first year of a longitudinal study of 519 Guatemalan children, and their families, from a disadvantaged urban community consisting largely of refugees of the 1976 earthquake. Four cohorts are described, composed of children of 1,3,5, and 7 years at examination. The children are smaller, weigh less, and have reduced fat stores compared either to NCHS reference data or to upper SE…
Skinfold thicknesses in a national probability sample of U.S. males and females aged 6 through 17 years
Cycles II and III of the Health Examination Survey included measurements of the skinfolds of over 14,000 individuals 6 through 17 years of age, statistically weighted to provide an accurate national probability sample. Analyses of the triceps and subscapular skinfolds of Negroes and whites are reported here, utilizing the median in preference to the mean. Females of either racial group have thicker skinfolds at all ages studied. Whites have great…
The contribution of the carpal bones to the assessment of skeletal age
The hand‐wrist radiographs of 64 boys and 63 girls were examined to determine the effect of the elimination of the carpal centers from those considered in estimating the skeletal age using the 1959 standards of Greulich and Pyle. The carpals were found to be a source of significant variable error in girls in repeated readings by individual observers. In addition, they lagged behind epiphyseal centers, relative to the standards. Based on these and…
Phenotypic assortative mating among the Peruvian Cashinahua
Among human populations, the selection of a spouse is conditioned by many factors involving not only natural but cultural determinants. The social regulation of marriage, common to all human societies, narrows the range of potential spouses in a way which interferes with random mating. At the genotypic level, this nonrandomness is referred to as inbreeding (Li, 1961; Wallace, 1968) and is a function of the frequency of consanguineous marriages. A…
The anthropometric determination of body composition among the Peruvian Cashinahua
The morphology and body composition of the Peruvian Cashinahua, a small unacculturated rain forest population numbering 206, has been analyzed. Measurements involve anthropometry, including skinfolds, and endosteal and periosteal breadths of the second metacarpals, taken from 135 handwrist radiographs. The analysis indicates that the Cashinahua are short and relatively heavy at all ages, and are morphologically similar to other comparable populat…
Approaches to the study of developmental variability in human skeletal populations
The study of osteological remains of human populations has moved, in recent years, towards an orientation more in keeping with other developments in the field of human biology. However, many investigators continue to ignore the skeletons of the immature members of their samples, despite the wide range of information offered by the study of developmental patterns. These patterns include linear and proportional growth as well as those which permit …
Basic Problems in Physical Development in Man in Relation to the Evaluation of Development of Children and Youth [and Comments and Reply]
After a period of passive observation of his own phylogenesis, Homo sapiens has begun to take an active role in the development of his species. Having progressed through the stages of treatment and prophylaxis of disease, he will eventually become capable of directing human development. This stage is of concern to physical anthropology, one of the branches of biomedical science. It is also of particular interest to cultural anthropology, because …
Interobserver reliability of skinfold measurements in infants and young children
Interobserver reliabilities were determined for the triceps, biceps, subscapular, suprailiac, and abdominal skinfolds in 77 children, 9–24 months of age. Technical errors of measurement (replicate variances) and coefficients of variation were compared to data on 12–17‐year‐olds from the U.S. Health Examination Survey (HES) to 2.5–7‐year‐old Guatamalan children. Of the five skinfolds, the between‐observer variation was not significantly different …
Biomedical anthropology
Biomedical anthropology is a newly emerging focus within anthropology, combining concepts of physical anthropology and medical anthropology in the study of disease and health among human populations. It grows out of the tradition in anthropology of holism and related attempts to develop biocultural approaches to anthropological issues. While these issues have been studied by physical and cultural anthropologists working independently of each othe…
Racial Taxonomies From an Evolutionary Perspective
Body composition and temperature regulation in newborns
Albumin Mexico ( Al Me ) in the Guatemalan highlands
The examination of the sera of two samples of Guatemalans (total n = 386) revealed the presence of albumin Mexico ( Al Me ) among unrelated individuals from the western highlands near the Mexican border. The frequency in the putatively less admixed sample, from Quiché, was 0.008. This is the first report of albumin polymorphism among American Indians south of Mexico. The presence of the Al Me allele among Indians of the Guatemalan highlands argue…
Finger dermatoglyphics of the Peruvian Cashinahua
The Peruvian Cashinahua are an isolate of unmixed American Indians living in four villages in the Southeastern part of the country. Finger dermatoglyphic data were collected from the three most closely grouped villages in the summer of 1966. The relatively low proportion of whorls and high proportion of arches, and the low values of pattern intensity (10.75) and total ridge count (89.14) contrasts markedly with other American Indian groups in gen…
Phenylthiocarbamide taste sensitivity and its relationship to growth variation
The hypothesis that there is a relationship between the tasting polymorphism and growth variation was tested on a sample of 425 Negro elementary school children. Twenty‐seven non‐tasters were found by testing with impregnated papers; 13 were male, 14 female, indicating no sex differences in this group. Matchedpair comparisons indicated no differences in weight, a tendency for tasters to be taller, and a stronger tendency for tasters of both sexes…
Correlations of midshaft breadths and compact bone thickness among bones of the upper and lower extremities of children aged 6 to 16 years
Correlations between endosteal, periosteal and compact bone breadths of the humerus, tibia, second metacarpal and second metatarsal were determined in a sample of 394 normal, white children from greater Philadelphia. Although most correlations tended to be significant, the magnitude of all were low, except just at the time of the onset of the adolescent spurt. In normal, disease‐free children, measurements of a single bone cannot be confidently u…
The reassessment of the age and sex of the Indian Knoll skeletal population
Growth of the long bones of infants and young children at Indian Knoll
Racial Taxonomies From an Evolutionary Perspective
The contribution of the carpal bones to the assessment of skeletal age
The hand‐wrist radiographs of 64 boys and 63 girls were examined to determine the effect of the elimination of the carpal centers from those considered in estimating the skeletal age using the 1959 standards of Greulich and Pyle. The carpals were found to be a source of significant variable error in girls in repeated readings by individual observers. In addition, they lagged behind epiphyseal centers, relative to the standards. Based on these and…
Phenylthiocarbamide taste sensitivity and its relationship to growth variation
The hypothesis that there is a relationship between the tasting polymorphism and growth variation was tested on a sample of 425 Negro elementary school children. Twenty‐seven non‐tasters were found by testing with impregnated papers; 13 were male, 14 female, indicating no sex differences in this group. Matchedpair comparisons indicated no differences in weight, a tendency for tasters to be taller, and a stronger tendency for tasters of both sexes…
Basic Problems in Physical Development in Man in Relation to the Evaluation of Development of Children and Youth [and Comments and Reply]
After a period of passive observation of his own phylogenesis, Homo sapiens has begun to take an active role in the development of his species. Having progressed through the stages of treatment and prophylaxis of disease, he will eventually become capable of directing human development. This stage is of concern to physical anthropology, one of the branches of biomedical science. It is also of particular interest to cultural anthropology, because …
Normal variability in the age and first onset of ossification of the triquetral
The age and order of ossification of the triquetral, among the bones of the hand and wrist, were determined from serial radiographs of 108 males and 103 females of the Oxford Child Health Survey. Although the median ages of ossification agreed reasonably well with the mean ages reported by other authors, the distributions suggested that the former is the more appropriate statistic. The distributions of order of ossification were distinctly bimoda…
Body Composition and Physical Fitness [and Comments and Reply]
Body composition, changing characteristically not only according to age and sex but also according to the balance of energy input and output and functional state, has become one of the most interesting morphological features of human physique. Cross-sectional studies have revealed remarkable differences in the proportions of lean body mass and fat related to adaptation for intensive physical activity in both adults and children and also in the ag…
American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Finger dermatoglyphics of the Peruvian Cashinahua
The Peruvian Cashinahua are an isolate of unmixed American Indians living in four villages in the Southeastern part of the country. Finger dermatoglyphic data were collected from the three most closely grouped villages in the summer of 1966. The relatively low proportion of whorls and high proportion of arches, and the low values of pattern intensity (10.75) and total ridge count (89.14) contrasts markedly with other American Indian groups in gen…
Approaches to the study of developmental variability in human skeletal populations
The study of osteological remains of human populations has moved, in recent years, towards an orientation more in keeping with other developments in the field of human biology. However, many investigators continue to ignore the skeletons of the immature members of their samples, despite the wide range of information offered by the study of developmental patterns. These patterns include linear and proportional growth as well as those which permit …
Phenotypic assortative mating among the Peruvian Cashinahua
Among human populations, the selection of a spouse is conditioned by many factors involving not only natural but cultural determinants. The social regulation of marriage, common to all human societies, narrows the range of potential spouses in a way which interferes with random mating. At the genotypic level, this nonrandomness is referred to as inbreeding (Li, 1961; Wallace, 1968) and is a function of the frequency of consanguineous marriages. A…
Correlations of midshaft breadths and compact bone thickness among bones of the upper and lower extremities of children aged 6 to 16 years
Correlations between endosteal, periosteal and compact bone breadths of the humerus, tibia, second metacarpal and second metatarsal were determined in a sample of 394 normal, white children from greater Philadelphia. Although most correlations tended to be significant, the magnitude of all were low, except just at the time of the onset of the adolescent spurt. In normal, disease‐free children, measurements of a single bone cannot be confidently u…
The anthropometric determination of body composition among the Peruvian Cashinahua
The morphology and body composition of the Peruvian Cashinahua, a small unacculturated rain forest population numbering 206, has been analyzed. Measurements involve anthropometry, including skinfolds, and endosteal and periosteal breadths of the second metacarpals, taken from 135 handwrist radiographs. The analysis indicates that the Cashinahua are short and relatively heavy at all ages, and are morphologically similar to other comparable populat…
The use of the Greulich‐Pyle method in a longitudinal growth study
The Greulich‐Pyle method of assessing skeletal maturity is essentially suited to cross‐sectional analyses, though it may be used retrospectively in longitudinal studies, through the technique of regression analysis. When applied to the serial records of 120 Philadelphia children, considerable variability in maturation rate may be observed. This variability is both within and between‐individuals. While most seems to be random, there is the strong …
Physical Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
Albumin Mexico ( Al Me ) in the Guatemalan highlands
The examination of the sera of two samples of Guatemalans (total n = 386) revealed the presence of albumin Mexico ( Al Me ) among unrelated individuals from the western highlands near the Mexican border. The frequency in the putatively less admixed sample, from Quiché, was 0.008. This is the first report of albumin polymorphism among American Indians south of Mexico. The presence of the Al Me allele among Indians of the Guatemalan highlands argue…
Skinfold thicknesses in a national probability sample of U.S. males and females aged 6 through 17 years
Cycles II and III of the Health Examination Survey included measurements of the skinfolds of over 14,000 individuals 6 through 17 years of age, statistically weighted to provide an accurate national probability sample. Analyses of the triceps and subscapular skinfolds of Negroes and whites are reported here, utilizing the median in preference to the mean. Females of either racial group have thicker skinfolds at all ages studied. Whites have great…
Physical Anthropology
Biological correlates of modernization in a Guatemalan highland municipio
The demographic correlates of modernization were studied in a municipio of the Guatemalan highlands using, as indicators of modernization, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and of a religous revitalization movement. Accion Catolica. Records, taken from interviews, of 340 women divided into declines (decennial groups) within ten-year birth cohorts extending from before 1925 to 1954, were checked for representativeness against the birth regi…
Hereditary and environmental determinants of growth in height in a longitudinal sample of children and youth of Guatemalan and European ancestry
The effects of hereditary and environmental factors upon the growth in stature of children living in Guatemala City has been studied. Heights at yearly examinations were fitted, by individual, to a double logistic curve in samples of Guatemalan and European children attending a private school in Guatemala City. These two samples differed genetically yet shared the same environment. Their growth was compared, by a multivariate analysis of the para…
Morbidity and growth of infants and young children in a rural Mexican village
The relationship between childhood illnesses and growth increments in length and weight was investigated in a 13-month birth cohort of rural Mexican children. Increments in length and weight for each year from birth to three years were related to high and low frequencies of reported time ill during the same period. Seventy-two of the 276 children had already been characterized as exhibiting "growth failure" relative to other members of the cohort…
The effects of protein supplementation on the growth and skeletal maturation of New Guinean school children
The response to protein supplementation was studied in 86 Bundi children, aged 7·7 to 13·0 years, in the New Guinea highlands. Group 1 (22 males, 8 females) served as a control and received only their normal school diet, averaging 5440 kJ and 11 g protein per day. Group 2 children (22 males, 8 females) were supplemented with 10 g of protein per day for five days a week and group 3 (18 males, 8 females) received 20 g protein per day. The supplemen…
A method for studying shape change in children
A method is given measuring shape change with age, utilizing two dimensional body outlines. Problems of standardization for overall size are discussed and it is shown how the method can be used to draw D'Arcy Thompson-type transformation grids. The method is applied to serial measurements on a girl from 31/2 to 19 years of age
Medicine (33 works) · Demography (31 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Biology (24 works) · Population (21 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · History (13 works) · Internal Medicine (13 works) · Anthropology (11 works) · Citation (11 works)