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Notes: Fingerprint whorl patterns are formed during fetal life. In a group of 180 term infants, those with more fingerprint whorls tended to have a small abdominal circumference (P= 0.09) and high ratio of head to abdominal circumference (P= 0.008). These associations were independent of the relation between the whorl counts of the mothers and their infants. We also found an independent correlation between the babies’ whorl count and the combination of increasing subscapular (P= 0.03) and decreasing triceps (P= 0.02) skinfold thicknesses of the mothers. Whorl patterns are associated with adult hypertension; maternal nutritional status may influence their common origin during fetal development.

Notes: Prior work demonstrated that Heuchera americana, an evergreen herb inhabiting the deciduous forest understory in the southeastern United States, has a 3-4-fold greater photosynthetic capacity under the low-temperature, strong-light, open canopies of winter compared to the high-temperature, weak-light, closed canopies of summer. Moreover, despite the reductions in soil nitrogen, the chilling temperatures, and the increased quantum flux associated with winter, chronic photoinhibition was not observed in this species at this time of the year. We were interested in the photosynthetic acclimation and photoinhibition characteristics of this species when grown under contrasting light and nitrogen regimes. Newly expanded shade-acclimated leaves of forest-grown plants exposed to strong light varying in intensity and duration at 25°C showed a reduction in Fv/Fm (the ratio of variable to maximum room temperature chlorophyll fluorescence measured after dark adaptation), which was correlated with a decline in øa (the intrinsic quantum yield of CO2-saturated O2 evolution on an absorbed light basis). Plants grown in the glasshouse under contrasting light (high and low light; HL and LL, respectively) and nitrogen supply (high and low nitrogen; HN and LN, respectively) regimes showed that photosynthetic acclimation to HL was impaired in LN regimes. The HL-LN plants also had the lowest values of Fv/Fm and of ø on both incident and absorbed light bases and had 50% less chlorophyll (per unit area) compared to plants from other growth regimes. Controlled exposure to bright light at low temperatures (2-3°C) for 3 h resulted in a sharp decrease in Fv/Fm (and rise in Fo, the minimum fluorescence yield) in all plants. Shade-grown plants from both N regimes were highly susceptible to chronic photoinhibition, as indicated by a greater reduction in Fv/Fm and incomplete recovery after 18 h in weak light at 25°C. The HL-HN plants were the least susceptible to chronic photoinhibition, having the smallest decrease in Fv/Fm with near full recovery within 6 h. The decline in Fv/Fm in HL-LN plants was comparable to that of shade-acclimated plants, but recovered fully within 6 h. Low-N plants from both light regimes displayed greater increases in Fo which did not return to pretreatment levels after 18 h of recovery. These studies indicate that HL-LN plants were sensitive to chronic photoinhibition and, at the same time, had a high capacity for dynamic photoinhibition. Experimental garden studies showed that H. americana grown in an open field in summer were photoinhibited and did not fully recover overnight or during extended periods of weak light. These results are discussed in relation to the photosynthetic acclimation of H. americana under natural conditions.