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Stoyanova, D. (2015). Computational Methods for Age-at-Death Estimation Based on the Pubic Symphysis. Retrieved from http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_Stoyanova_fsu_0071E_12868
The identification of forensic cases often includes the use of skeletal elements to assess the age-at-death of an individual. The pubic symphysis is the preferred and most often used skeletal age indicator. Standard techniques, such as the Suchey-Brooks system, require that the morphology of the pubic symphysis is visually compared to shape characteristics typical for phases with associated age intervals. As individual factors accumulate during the aging process, estimating the age-at-death for older individuals becomes increasingly more difficult. In addition, methods based on visual inspection of the bones introduce some level of subjectivity and observer-related error. This research makes use of about 100 3D laser scans of the pubic symphysis of white male skeletons with known ages-at-death, and proposes several objective, quantitative methods for shape analysis that aim to provide a surface or outline measure of the shape of the scans that minimizes the age-estimation error. The proposed methods include the use of thin plate splines, two-dimensional Fourier, wavelet and elliptic Fourier analysis, and a technique that uses the radius of a best fitting circle (in 2D) or sphere (in 3D) as a measure of the curvature of a shape. In addition some refinement and partitioning techniques were implemented. The project investigates the relationship between the exact age-at-death and the different measures produced by each method. Also included are results of applying a recently proposed computational method, the SAH-Score, to new scan data and scan partitions. As a final result, the project proposes multivariate regression models that combine the measures with highest statistical significance to minimize the age estimation error (about 12 years) and maximize the adjusted R-squared value (over 55%). Furthermore, the results are subjected to two cross-validation analysis to test for the accuracy of the models when used in practice.
A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Scientific Computing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references.
Advisory Committee
Dennis Slice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael Creswell, University Representative; Bridget Algee-Hewitt, Committee Member; Peter Beerli, Committee Member; Xiaoqiang Wang, Committee Member.
Publisher
Florida State University
Identifier
FSU_2015fall_Stoyanova_fsu_0071E_12868
Stoyanova, D. (2015). Computational Methods for Age-at-Death Estimation Based on the Pubic Symphysis. Retrieved from http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_Stoyanova_fsu_0071E_12868