[The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). Options and problems in application]. / Die Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). Potenzial und Probleme bei der Anwendung.

The new AIS (Abbreviated Injury Scale) was released with an update by the AAAM (Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine) in 2008. It is a universal scoring system in the field of trauma applicable in clinic and research. In engineering it is used as a classification system for vehicle safety. The AIS can therefore be considered as an international, interdisciplinary and universal code of injury severity. This review focuses on a historical overview, potential applications and new coding options in the current version and also outlines the associated problems.

[An innovative software for emergency diagnostics of injury severity at a traffic accident scene]. / Ein innovatives Rettungstool zur Einschätzung der Unfallschwere am Unfallort.

AIM OF THE STUDY: With respect to the restricted diagnostic possibilities at an accident scene and the limited time for decisions essential for survival, this project dealt with severe injuries with an abbreviated injury scale (AIS) 3-6 in traffic accidents. The objective was the development of a diagnostic aid that can be used directly at the accident site. METHODS: The analysis was based on data from the GIDAS (German in depth accident study) files from the years 1999-2006. To investigate the accident parameters and to draw up the injury risk functions a multivariate regression analysis of 5,010 traffic accidents was performed. RESULTS: For the 20 most prevalent severe injuries of passenger car drivers and front seat passengers the cumulative influence of clearly evident factors was depicted and the combined likelihood was calculated. For the utilization at the accident scene software has been developed to display these likelihoods in a simple and comprehensible manner. CONCLUSIONS: At the accident scene crucial diagnostic indications can be acquired with simple observation and a software-assisted analysis.

Population relationships of Lapps as reflected by quantitative dermatoglyphics.

Relationships and divergence among five Lapp samples were assessed using finger and palm interdigital ridge counts. Lapp relationships to other Uralic speakers were also assessed. Multivariate minimum FST values expressing differentiation among Lapps are 0.012. These values are higher than those for most European populations and show the importance of isolation and genetic drift in Lapp populations. Skolt Lapps and Lapps of the Kola Peninsula are generally more similar to each other and are differentiated from Mountain and Fisher Lapps. When Lapps are placed within the context of Uralic speakers in general, they show a marked affinity for the Finnic speakers and are differentiated from the Samoyedic speakers of Siberia. The ridge counts support the hypothesis of a European origin for the Lapps.

Directional and fluctuating asymmetry in the palmar interdigital ridge-counts.

Directional and fluctuating asymmetry of the palmar interdigital ridge-counts (c-d, b-c and a-b) was evaluated using a sample of 1186 male and 1042 female Germans. The c-d and b-c ridge-counts show higher right side values while the a-b count shows a higher left side value. Sex differences in asymmetry are significant, females exhibiting larger left values than males for all three counts. Directional asymmetries of the different areas exhibit weak negative correlations. Fluctuating asymmetry (magnitude of L-R) is highest for the c-d count, followed by the a-b. Both c-d and a-b ridge-counts exhibit a significant quadratic relationship between magnitude of L-R and R+L, but b-c does not. The quadratic relationship shows that individuals with extreme phenotypes are more asymmetrical than those closer to the mean. This in turn may be interpreted to mean that fluctuating asymmetry is a reflection of developmental stability.

Dermatoglyphic variation among Finno-Ugric speaking populations: methodological alternatives.

Utilization of dermatoglyphics for population studies is apparently increasing, but methods vary widely among investigators. We investigate how different types of dermatoglyphic data can affect estimates of biological distance among Finno-Ugric speaking populations. Dermatoglyphic distances were calculated using the following categories of traits: 1) Finger ridge-counts (radial and ulnar count for each digit), 2) finger ridge-counts (largest count for each digit), 3) finger pattern types, 4) palm ridge-counts, 5) palm patterns, and 6) main-line terminations. In addition, we compare our distances with those of Heet, which rely heavily on summary characters. Distances are evaluated by comparing them to each other and to language and geographic distances. There is considerable variation in the pattern of relationships resulting from the different variable sets. Finger variables, whether ridge-counts or pattern classifications, agree well with each other. Palm patterns, main-lines, and finger variables show moderate agreement with each other, while palm ridge-counts agree poorly with all variable sets except main-lines. Heet's distances agree poorly with all other dermatoglyphic distances. Finger patterns and main-lines are most closely related to language distances, after controlling for geography, while correlations with geography generally disappear after controlling for language. Heet's distances have weak associations with language and geography. Finger variables and palm main-lines yield results which agree best with historical relationships among Finno-Ugric populations. Our results make it very clear that utilization of dermatoglyphics in population studies requires careful consideration of methods, and that summary measures of quantitative or qualitative data should be used with caution.

Palm and sole interdigital ridge-count correlations.

Correlations among the twelve palm and sole interdigital ridge-counts were calculated for samples of Europeans of German, Austrian, Finnish and Polish ancestry, for Bantu speaking Black Africans from Angola and the Republic of South Africa, for Japanese and Tibetans and for Indians and Coloureds from the Republic of South Africa. Canonical correlation and factor analyses were used to discern patterning in the correlations. Generally, within palm and within sole correlations are stronger than palm-sole correlations. However, the results show an unequivocal positive relationship between palm and sole ridge-counts. A consistent feature was a stronger relationship of palm c-d counts to sole a-b counts. We suggest that this pattern of correlation may reflect early morphogenetic pattern formation prior to commitment of cells to hands and feet.

Genetic and environmental variation of ridge-counts on fingers, palms, soles and toes: a twin study.

A multivariate procedure for estimating heritable components from twin data was applied to ridge counts obtained from the entire dermatoglyphic system. Covariance matrices of MZ and DZ within-pair differences were used to estimate genetic correlation matrices for 20 finger ridge counts, 6 palmar interdigital counts, 20 toe counts, 4 hallucal counts, and 6 sole interdigital counts. The proportion of genetic variation was found to be greater in ridge counts of patterns than in ridge counts of interdigital areas. On digits, finger counts are more highly heritable than toe counts. Each of the dermatoglyphic areas yielded several independent genetic components, ranging from general to specific. Environmental variation was found to be local and to frequently involve reciprocal interaction between twin pairs.

[Studies of the epidermal pattern system of the palms and soles of the howler monkeys (Alouatta) (author's transl)]. / Untersuchungen am Hautleistensystem der Palma und Planta der mittel- und südamerikanischen Brüllaffen (Alouatta).

The epidermal pattern frequencies and pattern intensity values of the palms and soles are described for 110 male and 80 female howler monkeys (genus Alouatta) including the species A. belzebul, A. seniculus, A. caraya and A. villosa. Interspecific comparisons are made and obvious sex and side differences are noted. The plantar surface tends to show greater interspecific variability than does the palmar surface. A. caraya is possibly the most divergent species of the genus. Comparison of the results with those for Ateles and Lagothrix confirms the aberrant position of Ateles arachnoides.

On palmar and plantar pattern variability of the two baboon genera Papio and Theropithecus.

In general the results of the investigators Biegert (1961) and Gladkova (1958), concerning the palm and sole skin patterns in baboons can be confirmed, and some features can serve to distinguish some of the species in a very characteristic manner. The findings of our investigations of the papillary system substantiate the proposed taxonomic classification for baboons by Buettner-Janusch in 1966. The value and significance of the inter- and intra-species differences in baboons, with regard to morphological and quantified pattern analysis, could be fully evaluated when further comparisons of the presented data are accomplished and compared with those of other primate species and families.

[Plantar zygodactylous triradii in a population comparison]. / Populationsvergleiche plantarer zygodaktyler Triradien.

The plantar prints of 125 male Japanese were examined with regard to the frequencies of zygodactylous triradii and their expression types. Comparing the results with those of 500 males Viennese the two samples proved to be significantly different. The differences amount to such an extent that even by enlarging the Japanese sample no fundamental changes in the relations between the two populations might be expected. In Japanese the medium expression occurs in very low frequencies and the strong one not at all, while Europeans show those traits in about 60%. Comparing the pattern types characteristic for zygodactylous triradii, the Japanese revealed almost no proximal loops in the second and almost no whorls in the third interdigital area whereas Viennese showed high frequencies of both types. The findings of a sample of Angolan Bantus as well as those of a German one differ from the Japanese in the same way as the Viennese. It was observed that the line connecting the distal ends of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th toes is formed rather transversally in Japanese, while it is declining towards the 5th toe in Europeans and in Bantus. It requires further studies to prove if there exists a relation between this anatomical trait and the occurrence of zygodactylous triradii.

Finger and palmar dermatoglyphics of a Yoruba (Nigeria) sample.

Finger and palm prints of 126 male and 55 female Yoruba are reported using both quantitative and qualitative procedures. In general, the Yoruba fit into established geographical gradients for sub-saharan African populations. Whorl frequencies on the digits are relatively low, as is the frequency of palmar patterning. Finger ridge-counts, those of males in particular are high by African standards, and much higher than the previously reported data from Nigeria. Due to the lack of data on patterns of geographic variation in total finger ridge-count, little can be made of these findings at present.