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. / Fall Semester 2015. / November 3, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references. / Dennis Slice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Michael Creswell, University Representative; Bridget Algee-Hewitt, Committee Member; Peter Beerli,
Committee Member; Xiaoqiang Wang, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_291385 |
| Contributors | Stoyanova, Detelina (authoraut), Slice, Dennis E. (professor directing dissertation), Creswell, Michael H., 1958- (university representative), Algee-Hewitt, Bridget (committee member), Beerli, Peter (committee member), Wang, Xiaoqiang (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Scientific Computing (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (108 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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