American Journal of Human Biology最新文献

Human biologists have long studied the ecology, health, and adaptive patterns of pastoralist populations around the world. Over the last 20 years, research among pastoralists has increasingly focused on how ongoing climatic and socioeconomic changes are influencing these populations and threatening this lifeway. Additionally, with the development and broader use of “field friendly” methods for measuring energy expenditure, metabolism, and diverse biomarkers of physiological health, we are now able to gain a much more detailed and dynamic picture of the adaptive strategies of pastoralists. This Virtual Special Issue of the American Journal of Human Biology, “Human Biology of Pastoralists Populations” (Edited by Benjamin Campbell), showcases important advancements in this research domain and highlights the foundational contributions of Michael A. Little to our understanding of the biology and health of pastoralist societies.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the influences exerted by temperature on the circadian rhythm of births.

Methods: In the past births occurred mainly between midnight and dawn, while today births tend to be less frequent during the night hours. Today, almost all births are hospitalized and, therefore, they may adapt to the organizational requirements of the health care structures and staff. This piece of research regards births in Udine, a city in north-eastern Italy, recorded at the beginning of the 19th century. The data on births come from the French civil register. Weather data come from very detailed daily collection with three measurements per day. From the statistical point of view, we apply methods developed for circular data. In order to highlight relationships between time of birth and explanatory variables, we estimate MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) models and perform a statistical test for comparison between groups.

Results: The test against the homogeneity of the hour-of-birth distributions across the 4 seasons is significant (p < 0.01). One-to-one comparison of the distributions is performed via Watson's two-sample test on data for each couple of seasons: the Summer-Autumn comparison is the only non-significant test of homogeneity. Moreover, we consider daily temperatures in the bivariate model in several different ways and transformations. The daily temperature effect is more significant if considered as the difference between the evening temperature of the day before the birth and the mean daily temperature of the same day, over the nine-year period 1807-1815. Finally, based on this division of the births, Watson's two-sample homogeneity test for the distribution of the hour of birth is significant (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: We found that the circadian rhythm of births is influenced by temperature, with an anticipation of the time of birth on warmer days. To our knowledge, our results are the first evidence of the effects of daily temperature on the time of birth.

Doe D. M., N. Candelas González, J. A. Gutiérrez González, O. Cambra-Moo, A. González Martín. 2025. “Unlocking Adolescence: A Novel Approach to Approximate the Sociocultural Implications of Puberty in Medieval Spain.” American Journal of Human Biology 37, no. 5: e70054. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70054.

In the second paragraph of the Discussion section (page 9), the first sentence which reads “Skeletons with age-at-death estimations of 810 years were determined…” is incorrect. It should read “Skeletons with age-at-death estimations of 8, 9 and 10 years were determined…”

We apologize for this error.

This article considers how to approach sporting injury from the perspective of gender/sex entanglement. Taking the case of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, I explore how the gender differences and inequalities that fundamentally shape many sporting environments may contribute to injury in women athletes. I look to Australian Rules football (Aussie Rules)—a male-dominated, high-contact, highly skilled running game and Australia's largest commercial sport—where, following the launch of a women's professional league in 2017, a marked gender disparity in ACL injury has been reported. Rather than attribute this reported disparity to essential biological differences between women and men, I consider how gendered practices and disparities may accumulate across the life course of athletes with consequences for the embodied experiences of women and girls. Building on the concept of structural sexism as a key determinant of health, I document gender-related differences and inequalities at the early childhood, youth, and elite levels of Aussie Rules football. Via this case, I contribute to calls for a dynamic, developmental, and fundamentally gendered approach to studies of injury both in and beyond sport.