Variability in body size and shape of UK offshore workers: a cluster analysis approach.

Male UK offshore workers have enlarged dimensions compared with UK norms and knowledge of specific sizes and shapes typifying their physiques will assist a range of functions related to health and ergonomics. A representative sample of the UK offshore workforce (n=588) underwent 3D photonic scanning, from which 19 extracted dimensional measures were used in k-means cluster analysis to characterise physique groups. Of the 11 resulting clusters four somatotype groups were expressed: one cluster was muscular and lean, four had greater muscularity than adiposity, three had equal adiposity and muscularity and three had greater adiposity than muscularity. Some clusters appeared constitutionally similar to others, differing only in absolute size. These cluster centroids represent an evidence-base for future designs in apparel and other applications where body size and proportions affect functional performance. They also constitute phenotypic evidence providing insight into the ‘offshore culture’ which may underpin the enlarged dimensions of offshore workers

The Body Size and Micronutrients Status Among the Bride-To Be in Probolinggo Districtof East Java

Micronutrients deficiency is prevalent among women in reproductive age, particularly in developing countries, including in Indonesia. Small body size reflects a chronic deficiency of nutrients intake. Both of those problems may correlate each other and making maternal nutrition more complicated. Brides-to be are the most important group of women in reproductive age who require better recognition, because they will become mothers. This study was to describe inter-correlation among anthropometric indices which reflected the maternal body size and several indicators of micronutrient status. A cross sectional study was conducted in selected sub-districts of Probolinggo District, East Java Province year 2012. The samples size of 115 brides-to be were randomly selected from list of brides-to be in Sub-district Office of Religious Affair. The observed variables were body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), mid upper arms circumference (MUAC), micronutrients status including concentration of hemoglobin, serum ferritin, serum retinol and serum zinc. Pearson correlation test was used to analyze data using SPSS for Window version 13.0. Result showed that the average of body weight was 47,3 kg, average stature was 150,4 cm, BMI was 20, MUAC was 25,3 cm. The average of hemoglobin level was 12,4 g/dL, serum ferritin was 50,6 µg/L, serum retinol level was 1,06 µmol/L, and serum Zn level was 12,9 µmol/L. Statistical analisis showed significant correlation between the body weight and hemoglobin concentration (r =0,25, p = 0,01) and serum retinol (r = 0,21, p = 0,03); between BMI and hemoglobin concentration (r = 0,31, p = 0,00) and serum ferritin (r = 0,23, p = 0,03), and serum retinol (r = 0,21, p = 0,02); between MUAC and hemoglobin (r = 0,32, p = 0,00) and serum retinol (r = 0,24, p = 0,02); between hemoglobin concentration and serum ferritin concentration (r = 0,30, p = 0,00). Stature did not correlate with any indicators of micronutrient. It implies that among the indices of body size, body weight and BMI as well as MUAC are important indicators relating to iron status, and vitamin A status, but not zinc status

Seeing the body distorts tactile size perception

Vision of the body modulates somatosensation, even when entirely non-informative about stimulation. For example, seeing the body increases tactile spatial acuity, but reduces acute pain. While previous results demonstrate that vision of the body modulates somatosensory sensitivity, it is unknown whether vision also affects metric properties of touch, and if so how. This study investigated how non-informative vision of the body modulates tactile size perception. We used the mirror box illusion to induce the illusion that participants were directly seeing their stimulated left hand, though they actually saw their reflected right hand. We manipulated whether participants: (a) had the illusion of directly seeing their stimulated left hand, (b) had the illusion of seeing a non-body object at the same location, or (c) looked directly at their non-stimulated right-hand. Participants made verbal estimates of the perceived distance between two tactile stimuli presented simultaneously to the dorsum of the left hand, either 20, 30, or 40 mm apart. Vision of the body significantly reduced the perceived size of touch, compared to vision of the object or of the contralateral hand. In contrast, no apparent changes of perceived hand size were found. These results show that seeing the body distorts tactile size perception

Heritabilities of Body Size by Growth Hormone (Gh-msp1) Genotypes Using Pcr-rflp in Ongole Grade Cattle

Genotypic performance in term of heritability as the crucial factor of animal economical traits for body size inheritance had not been fully studied in Ongole-grade cattle. The objectives of this research were to define the heritability values of live weight, chest girth and body length in Ongole-crossbred cattle. Total of 37 blood samples were collected from parental cows and 2 blood samples from parental Ongole breed bulls. All blood samples were screened for the presence of growth hormone (GH) locus using PCR-RFLP method involving restricted enzyme Msp1 on agarose-gel (1.2%). Data were analyzed using statistical program in Excel XP. Results showed that the phenotypic estimation average of Ongole grade cattle population of live weight, chest girth and body length were 445.41 ± 45.95 kg, 175.35 ± 4.11 cm, and 139.70 ± 5.73cm, respectively. The heritability values of animal live weight, chest girth and body length in this study were 0.24, 0.003, and 0.41, respectively. These heritability values of animal live weight and body length would be categorized as moderate to high genotypic performance values, while the heritability of animal chest girth was included in low heritability standard of the animal economical trait performance

Owning an overweight or underweight body: distinguishing the physical, experienced and virtual body

Our bodies are the most intimately familiar objects we encounter in our perceptual environment. Virtual reality provides a unique method to allow us to experience having a very different body from our own, thereby providing a valuable method to explore the plasticity of body representation. In this paper, we show that women can experience ownership over a whole virtual body that is considerably smaller or larger than their physical body. In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying body ownership, we use an embodiment questionnaire, and introduce two new behavioral response measures: an affordance estimation task (indirect measure of body size) and a body size estimation task (direct measure of body size). Interestingly, after viewing the virtual body from first person perspective, both the affordance and the body size estimation tasks indicate a change in the perception of the size of the participant’s experienced body. The change is biased by the size of the virtual body (overweight or underweight). Another novel aspect of our study is that we distinguish between the physical, experienced and virtual bodies, by asking participants to provide affordance and body size estimations for each of the three bodies separately. This methodological point is important for virtual reality experiments investigating body ownership of a virtual body, because it offers a better understanding of which cues (e.g. visual, proprioceptive, memory, or a combination thereof) influence body perception, and whether the impact of these cues can vary between different setups

Visual distortion of body size modulates pain perception

Pain is a complex subjective experience, that can be shaped by several cognitive, psychological and even contextual variables. For example, simply viewing the body reduces the reported intensity of acute physical pain. We investigated whether this visually induced analgesia can be modulated by the visually depicted size of the stimulated body part. We measured contact heat-pain thresholds, while participants viewed either their own hand or a neutral object, at real size, enlarged, or reduced. Vision of the body was analgesic, increasing heat-pain thresholds by ~ 4°C. Importantly, enlargement of the viewed hand enhanced this analgesia, while looking at a reduced hand decreased it. These results demonstrate that visual distortions of body size modulate sensory components of pain, and reveal a clear functional relation between the perception of pain and the representation of the body

¿Los sujetos con obesidad subestiman su tamaño corporal? Una revisión narrativa de los métodos de estimación y teorías explicativas

The widespread of overweight and obesity in the developed countries is a real societal issue, nevertheless a considerable amount of subjects with obesity do not recognize their condition. Researchers used different methods to assess body size perception by obese subjects and the results show that while some subjects with obesity estimate accurately or overestimate their body size, others underestimate their weight and their body size measures. A failure to identify overweight or obesity has serious consequences on the subject's health, as it is widely recognised that self-awareness is the first step to engage in a rehabilitation program. The spread of obesity underestimation and its implications make the case for a new hypothetical body image disorder, which has been called Fatorexia (TM). It consists in the significant underestimation of body size by subjects with obesity, as they are unable or unwilling to acknowledge their condition. Some researchers proposed a social explanation to the underestimation phenomenon, but here an alternative hypothesis, the Allocentric Lock Theory (ALT), is outlined to describe the mechanisms behind the underestimation of body size by subjects with obesity