Doctoral Dissertation Research: Patterns in Ontogeny of Human Trabecular Bone from the Prehistoric Ohio Valley

有人说，孩子是人类之父。该项目从这一前提延伸出来，研究人类生长和发育过程中骨骼结构的各个方面，目的是在儿童时期产生新的骨骼生物学的定量和结构知识。骨骼的形状和结构与活动和负荷有可预测的关系，这使得它们对于研究过去和现在人口的行为和童年发展具有潜在的吸引力。相对较少的研究针对骨骼在生长和发育过程中的变化，造成了这种类型的分析可以用于检查过去(和现在的)人类群体的生活质量的基础上的不足。这项研究项目研究了骨骼形状和形状如何反映生长和发育以及与正常儿童功能活动的时间和习得有关的时间序列和变化。这项研究使用了一系列考古骨骼，以解决骨骼个体发育的假说。骨骼样本来自Sunwatch，这是俄亥俄州代顿附近的一个晚期史前俄亥俄谷村庄，位于小迈阿密河上。Sunwatch是12世纪在俄亥俄山谷出现的聚落模式的一个例子，其特点是农业村庄有一个中央广场和一个由长方形房屋、墓地和储藏室/垃圾坑组成的外围环。骨骼分析将包括对膝盖以下的骨骼进行完全无损的微型X射线扫描，展示晶格状骨骼结构的细节。计算机辅助分析将开发结构参数。这项研究的期望，除了帮助研究生培训之外，还希望提供定量的形态和成像数据，突出生长/发育、一般功能活动和骨骼结构之间的动态顺序关系。这个项目代表了一个关于儿童生长发育、机械负荷和体力活动的自然实验：婴儿从不走路到走路，从小体质量到大体质量，以及从依赖活动到独立。智力优势集中在利用计算机模拟建模、非侵入性显微成像技术和有限元计算方法方面的最新进展来促进对社会结构人类行为、环境影响和童年骨骼生物学的理解。虽然这项研究的重点是骨骼的生长变化问题，但项目设计的适用性可以为身体人类学、骨骼生物学、生长发育和生物考古学的扩展比较研究奠定基础。对人类骨骼结构的研究处于肌肉骨骼生物学的广泛框架内，在不同的遗传和环境背景下对我们骨骼的变化、严重的公共卫生状况(骨关节炎和骨质疏松症)以及骨骼再生和植入调查等领域具有全社会影响。这项研究加强了研究的基础设施，纳入了最新的进展，促进了理解骨骼生物学的多学科方法，并增强了与古代和现代人口的生物文化研究的相关性。

It has been stated that the child is the father of man. This project extends from that premise, examining aspects of bone structure during human growth and development with the goal of producing new quantitative and structural knowledge of skeletal biology in childhood. Bone shape and structure have a predictable relationship to activity and load, making them potentially attractive for the study of behavior and childhood development of past and present populations. Relatively little research has been directed towards the variation in bone during growth and development, creating a deficiency in the foundation upon which this type of analysis can be used to examine the quality of life for past (and living) human groups. This research project studies the temporal sequence and variation in how bone form and shape are a reflection of growth and development and are associated with the timing and acquisition of normal childhood functional activities. The study uses an archaeological series of skeletons in order to address hypotheses about skeletal ontogeny.The skeletal sample is selected from SunWatch, a Late Prehistoric Ohio Valley village, located on the Little Miami River, near Dayton, Ohio. SunWatch is an example of a settlement pattern emerging in the Ohio Valley in the 12th century, characterized by agricultural villages with a central plaza and a peripheral ring of rectangular houses, burials, and storage/trash pits. Skeletal analysis will consist of completely nondestructive micro X-ray scanning of bone just below the knee, demonstrating the details of the lattice-like bony structure. Computer assisted analyses will develop structural parameters. The expectations of this study, in addition to assisting in graduate training, are to provide quantitative morphological and imaging data highlighting the dynamic sequential relationships between growth/development, general functional activities, and bone structure. This project represents a natural experiment in childhood growth and development, mechanical loading, and physical activity: infants going from not walking to walking, small body mass to large body mass, and dependency in activity to independence. The intellectual merit centers on the potential of using recent advances in computer-simulated modeling, non-invasive micro-imaging techniques, and finite element computational methodologies to advance understanding of socially structured human behavior, environmental influences, and the skeletal biology of childhood. Although this study is focused on the problem of growth changes in bone, the applicability of the project design can form the foundation for expanded comparative studies in physical anthropology, skeletal biology, growth and development, and bioarchaeology.Research into the structure of the human skeleton is situated within the broad framework of musculoskeletal biology with society-wide implications in the areas of changes in our skeleton with varying genetic and environmental settings, serious public health conditions (osteoarthritis and osteoporosis), and skeletal regenerative and implant investigations. This study enhances the infrastructure of research by incorporating recent advances, fostering a multidisciplinary approach towards understanding skeletal biology, and augmenting relevance to biocultural studies of ancient and recent populations.