Endosteal hyperostosis was encountered in a 26-year-old-man and his 6-month-old daughter. Both the father and his daughter presented with fractures. Odontoid process hyperplasia, and progressive sclerosis of the posterior spinal elements, was the other significant features. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical report describing distinctive spinal changes in association with ...

The long history of Confucianism and Taoism in Chinese society gives both girls’ and fathers’ roles in Chinese families their own specific meanings. The paper is to research girls’ and fathers’ perceptions of father-daughter relationships among two cohorts of girls aged 13/14 and aged 16/17. It will seek to understand, from fathers’ and daughters’ perspectives, fathers’ influences on girls’ liv...

The family division whereby men take charge of external affairs and women internal is deeply rooted in China. However, female labor participation surprisingly high, probably because the mitigating effect intergenerational support provided by elderly. As China’s baby boomers retire, this may change. Will affect women’s decisions? Research has focused on how maternal retirement impacts biological...

Autosomal dominant episodic ataxia type 2 (EA2) results from mutations of the CACNA1A gene. We describe EA2 with unusual features in a father and daughter with a novel CACNA1A mutation coding for Y248C. Both patients showed severe cerebellar atrophy in MRI and clinical signs of progressive spinocerebellar atrophy type 6. Most disabling were the very frequent episodes of ataxia with migraine (wi...

The most common way by which social animals avoid breeding with relatives is for members of one or both sexes to disperse before reproducing [1]. In capuchin monkeys — as in most primates — males disperse while females benefit from lifelong relationships with maternal kin within the group [2]. If α-males — who sire most offspring in a given group — retain their rank for longer than 6 years, the...

This dissertation is dedicated to my mother and father, my husband Damitha, and my daughter Sanaya for their love and support.