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Participant Selection
Ethics committee approval for research involving human participants was obtained from the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee on 11 December 2008, reference number 2008/468. Recruitment of participants was largely undertaken at the University of Auckland. Participants were sought by word of mouth, through posters positioned around the University, contact with student associations, and through a website. A number of talks were also given to groups of potential participants. All potential participants were advised to review the website to ascertain the criteria, and the requirements involved in participation On occasion participants may have been rushing to get to the lab on time. To ensure this did not affect any results, each participant was seated and taken through the questionnaire first, and then the anthropometric measurements were taken. This process usually took around 30 minutes in an air conditioned lab. At this point all the participants would be in a stable rested state before the cold induced vasodilation response testing commenced.
Testing was carried out between February 2009 and August 2010 in Auckland. Auckland has a temperate climate, with an average annual daily temperature of 15.5°C, a daily minimum average temperature of 7.5ºC in July, being the coldest month, and a daily maximum average temperature of 24.1 ºC in February, being the warmest month (World Meteorological Organization, 2011). The lab used for testing was air conditioned, as are much of the University buildings. The likelihood of any effect on the CIVD response testing due to local climatic conditions is minimal.
In terms of other factors that may have affected testing, all participants were warned before arrival that they must not have taken alcohol, drugs, caffeine, eaten a large meal, or have smoked for four hours prior to testing. Participants were questioned on this on arrival to ensure their compliance.
A sample group of at least 50 European, 50 East Asian, 50 Polynesian, 50 Indian, 20 African, and 20 Melanesian participants was sought. The smaller sample size of African and Melanesian participants was due to the small numbers of these ethnic groups in Auckland and the difficulty of recruitment. In total 286 subjects participated in the study. Of the participants, 277 (97%) were tested in the biology labs at the University of Auckland, 3 at the Auckland University of Technology, and 6 at my residence. One participant, of Arab origin was excluded from the final analysis, as there seemed little point in having an ethnic group of just one participant, and no other Arabs participated in the study. This left a total of 285 participants. The same equipment was used in all test locations.
Each participant was asked a series of questions relating to their age, birthplace, countries they have lived in, history of occupations, gender, ancestry back to their grandparents, languages spoken by them or their parents or grandparents, medical history, fitness level, smoking history, last time of alcohol and caffeine consumption. This information, along with the anthropometric measurements taken from each participant, was recorded on an interview and data recording sheet, a copy of which is in appendix B. From this information each participant was categorised into an ethnic group.
The main purpose of this questionnaire was to:
1. Determine ethnicity for each participant.
2. To determine whether a participant qualified for either the anthropometric measurements survey, or the CIVD response testing.
Full details of the determination of ethnicity are covered in detail below. In terms of qualifying participants to participate in the testing procedures, no participant was disqualified from the anthropometric testing as none had any particular physical characteristics which may have affected these results. A number of participants, 11 in total, were excluded from the CIVD response testing and these were on the following grounds; failed to complete the CIVD response test satisfactorily (3 participants), on blood related prescription medications (4), age over 60 (1), previous frostbite finger injury (1), diabetic (1), finger drummer, with calluses on finger (1).
Every participant was questioned on their history of occupations, and the countries they had resided in for more than a 12 month period. None had been subjected to any significant period of intense cold, or high altitude. Therefore no participants were excluded from the CIVD response testing on the grounds of the likelihood of any significant developmental adaptations to cold.
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Overview.
1.2. Aims of this Research
1.3. Hypotheses
1.4. Thesis Structure
Chapter 2. Human Body Morphology.
2.1. Human Variation
2.2. Factors Regulating Body Morphology
2.3. Evolutionary Trends in Hominid Body Shape
2.4. Modern Human Morphological Variation
2.5. Modern Human Dispersals
2.6. Time Scale for Modern Human Morphological Variation
2.7. Polynesian Body Morphology
2.8. Houghton’s Hypothesis
2.9. Summar
Chapter 3. Polynesian Origins
3.1. Introduction.
3.2. Pacific Colonization Model
3.3. Genetics
3.4. Linguistics.
3.5. Archaeolog
3.6. Commensals
3.7. Asian Dispersal and Climates in the Upper Pleistocene
3.8. Summary
Chapter 4. Cold Induced Vasodilation Response
4.1. Human Response to Cold.
4.2. Cold Induced Vasodilation Response
4.3. Physiology of CIVD Response .
4.4. Adaptive Features of CIVD Response in Hand
4.5. Differences in CIVD Response between Human Populations
4.6. Summary
Chapter 5. Methodology
5.1. Participant Selection
5.2. Anthropometric Measurement .
5.3. CIVD Response Testing
5.4. Participant Discomfort .
5.5. Statistical Methodology
5.6. Limitations of the Study..
Chapter 6. Results
Chapter 7. Discussion
References.
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Cold Case: Cold induced vasodilation response, and the origins of Polynesian body morphology as an adaptation to a cold environment.
