The relative age effect (RAE) is a well-documented phenomenon in youth sports. This effect exists when the relative age quarter distribution of selected athletes shows a biased distribution with an over-representation of relatively older athletes. In alpine ski racing, it exists in all age categories (national youth levels up to World Cup). Studies so far could demonstrate that selected ski rac...

Female mice previously selected for early and late sexual maturation were tested to determine whether they retained flexibility in age of puberty in response to pheromonal and social cues. First vaginal oestrus in fst-maturing females could be delayed but not accelerated by social cues. Conversely, puberty in slow-maturing females could be accelerated in their sexual development, but not delaye...

BACKGROUND Predicted maturity offset and age at peak height velocity are increasingly used with youth athletes, although validation studies of the equations indicated major limitations. The equations have since been modified and simplified. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to validate the new maturity offset prediction equations in independent longitudinal samples of boys and girls. ...

Maturity group (based on the number of days to maturity) is an important growth trait for determining crop productivity, but there has been no attempt to examine the effects of elevated [CO(2)] on yield enhancement of rice cultivars with different maturity groups. Since early-maturing cultivars generally show higher plant N concentration than late-maturing cultivars, it is hypothesized that [CO...

Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum L.) breeding programs aim to develop later maturing cultivars for extending early spring grazing in Western Canada. Plant maturity is a complex genetic trait, and little is known about genes associated with late maturity in this species. An attempt was made using RNA-Seq to profile the transcriptome of crested wheatgrass maturity and to analyze differenti...

Developmental plasticity is thought to reconcile the constraining role of natural selection in maintaining local adaptation with evolutionary diversification under novel conditions, but empirical documentations are rare. In vertebrates, growth and development of bones is partially guided by contractions of attached musculature and such muscle activity changes progressively through embryonic dev...

in order to investigation of planting pattern and plant density effects on vegetative and reproductive organs and yield of early maturing cotton cultivars, an experiment was carried out as split–split plot using randomized complete block design with 4 replications, in karkandeh research station, during 2004-2205. three row spaces (60, 70 and 80 cm) were consisted as main factors, plant space in...

Early pubertal timing places girls at elevated risk for a breadth of negative outcomes, including involvement in delinquent behavior. While previous developmental research has emphasized the unique social challenges faced by early maturing girls, this relation is complicated by genetic influences for both delinquent behavior and pubertal timing, which are seldom controlled for in existing resea...