Dissertation Research: Micro and Macroscopic Architecture of the Human Mid-shaft Femur: A Quantitative Study of Variability with Age and Gender

骨的形状和微观结构受到其在生命过程中所经历的机械载荷的影响。 因此，他们的研究对于重建过去的人类行为和适应非常重要。 然而，这种研究受到现代人类变异性知识的限制。 新的显微镜和成像技术将被用来研究人类股骨中段的骨结构变异性。 研究的因素将包括骨内胶原纤维的方向、骨组织的矿化和密度、骨的组织学组织以及股骨的横截面几何形状。 这些因素将通过来自光学和扫描电子显微镜的图像的定量分析进行检查。 由于所有这些因素都对骨的整体结构有贡献，因此预计它们之间存在潜在的代偿关系。 这些关系将被量化，沿着他们的变异性与年龄和性别使用一个大的成人尸检样本。 这项骨结构变异性的人群内研究将为年龄相关性骨疾病如骨质疏松症的研究提供重要数据。 所使用的技术，并在这项研究中获得的数据，将提供一个基础，为今后的比较研究的变异性骨组织之间的当代人口，成人和青少年，以及考古和化石样本。 这样的研究将反过来鼓励新的假设，关于环境，营养，生物力学和进化历史对骨结构变异的作用。

Bone shape and microstructure are influenced by the mechanical loads they experience during life. Their study is thus important to the reconstruction of past human behavior and adaptation. However, such research is limited by a knowledge of variability in modern humans. Novel microscopy and imaging techniques will be employed to study bone architectural variability in the human mid-shaft femur. Factors investigated will include collagen fiber orientations within bone, the mineralization and density of the bone tissue, the histological organization of bone, and the cross-sectional geometry of the femur. These factors will be examined by means of quantitative analysis of images derived from both light and scanning electron microscopy. As all of these factors contribute to the overall architecture of the bone, and potential compensatory relationships are expected to exist between them. These relationships will be quantified, along with their variability with age and sex using a large adult autopsy sample. This intra-population study of variability in bone architecture will provide important data for the study of age-related bone diseases such as osteoporosis. The techniques used, and the data obtained in this study, will provide a basis for future comparative research on variability of bone organization among contemporary populations, both adult and juvenile, as well as among archaeological and fossil samples. Such research will, in turn, encourage new hypotheses concerning the role of environment, nutrition, biomechanics, and evolutionary history on bone architectural variability.