STATISTICAL METHODS IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT/CLINICAL STUDIES

该项目旨在为解决问题制定新的统计方法。 并将现有方法应用于这些领域 以新颖的方式解决问题。 继续在两个领域开展工作：（1）统计 人口中出生体重分布的建模，以及 (2)生殖系统发育轨迹的统计模拟 荷尔蒙在儿童青春期。 发展一个令人满意的统计模型， 人口中的出生体重将有助于更好地理解 出生体重与婴儿死亡率的关系。 在制定 模型和用于将模型拟合到数据的方法， 测量出生体重分布的选定特征，我们正在应用 我们的技术，美国出生体重和围产期死亡率的数据，以评估 通过出生体重特征预测死亡率的准确性 我们的技术测量的分布。 血清促性腺激素和性腺激素水平的变化，作为儿童 在青春期发育。我们已经发展出了对 通过拟合一定的非线性， 激素水平对数的回归模型， 无论是睾丸体积或坦纳阶段，并比较发育 FSH、LH和FSH在男孩和女孩之间的变化轨迹。 男孩 在青春期早期表现出LH对数的急剧上升，而在女孩中， 早起是渐进的。

This project seeks to develop new statistical methodologies for problems in human development and to apply existing methodologies to those problems in novel ways. Work continues in two areas: (1) statistical modeling of the distribution of birthweights in human populations, and (2) statistical modeling of developmental trajectories of reproductive hormones in children through puberty. Development of a satisfactory statistical model for the distribution of birthweights in a population will facilitate a refined understanding of the relationship of birthweight to infant mortality. Having developed a model and a method for fitting the model to data that allow us to measure selected features of birthweight distributions, we are applying our technique to U.S. birthweight and perinatal mortality data to assess how well mortality rates are predicted by features of birthweight distributions that our technique measures. Serum levels of gonadotropins and gonadal hormones change as children develop through puberty. We have developed parsimonious descriptions of hormonal development through puberty by fitting certain nonlinear regression models to the logarithm of hormone level as a function of either testis volume or Tanner stage and have compared developmental trajectories of FSH, LH, and inhibin between boys and girls. Boys exhibit a steep rise in log LH early in puberty whereas in girls this early rise is more gradual.