The shape of the posterior profile of the lower legs in the lateral view was examined by Moire photography in 281 healthy, Japanese aged 18-22 years participated in different sports.Subjects were 140 male and 28 female non-athletes, 30 male and 14 female swimmers, 21 male sprinters, and 48 male kendo players.Using a cubic spline function and geometrical data from the Moire photographs, the posterior profile of the lower leg in the lateral view was reconstructed from the level of the apex captitis fibulae to the pternion.
After standardization of the size factor, the posterior profile of the lower leg in the lateral view was represented by 49 measurements.These measurements were defined as the distances from 49 points, which divided at regular intervals between both ends of the reconstructed line, to the posterior profile of the lower leg in the lateral view.These measurements were analyzed by the factor, clustering and MDS analyses.
The shape of posterior profile of the lower leg varied by sport group: sprinters and kendo players had a posterior profile that protruded more than the others did.Lateral differences in the shape were recognized in every group.Especially, the lateral difference was marked in male non-athlete and male swimmer groups.These results suggest that the posterior profiles of the lower legs are greatly influenced by not only sport type, but also daily activities.

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equences of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from archaeological remains of Japanese dogs were determined from 145 ancient dog samples (mainly bones) from the Jomon (100C-4C B.C.), Yayoi (4C B.C.-3C A.D.), Kofun (3-6C A.D.), Okhotsk (7-12C A.D.) and the Kamakura (12-14C A.D.) Periods.Highly variable sequences of the mitochondrial control region (198 base pairs) were amplified at least twice from independently prepared DNA extracts, and those from ancient samples were compared with 28 haplotypes from 178 modern dogs.The 198-bp ancient mtDNA was amplified from 74 ancient dog samples, and the sequences were classified into 19 haplotypes comprising five modern haplotypes (M1, M2, M5, M10 and M11) identified in modern dogs and 14 ancient haplotypes showing unique sequences not observed in modern dogs.Haplotype M5 was widely distributed in archaeological sites in northern Japan and Sakhalin, while haplotype M2 was detected from archaeological sites in southern Japan.Three major clusters (CL1 to CL3) were distinguished within the modern dog control region using phylogenetic analysis;all ancient dogs belonged to the CL1 cluster.From these results, we could not discern which modern Japanese dog breed closely resembles ancient dogs using phylogenetic analysis, but the CL1 cluster was likely distributed in the Japanese archipelago from the Jomon Period.

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Population genetic study of nine aboriginal ethnic groups of Taiwan(Ami, Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiat, Tsou, and Yami) wascarried out. Twelve red cell enzymes (AcP, AK, CA1, CA2, EsD, GLO, GPT, GOT, LDH, MDH, PGD, and PGM1) were analyzed by isoelectric focusingmethod and starch gel electrophoretic method. Six loci (AcP, EsD, GLO, GPT, PGD, and PGM1) were polymorphic. Three alleles (PGM1*6, GPT*6, andEsD*7) were in relatively higher allele frequencies in Taiwan aboriginalpopulations, and we found homozygotes for those alleles. Phylogenetic relationshipbased on genetic distances among those ethnic groups more or less fit to theirgeographical distribution, but not to linguistic classification.

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