Quantifying Age-Related Bone Loss and Vitamin D Deficiency: Exploring Co-Occurrence and Co-Morbidity in Two 18th to 19th Century French-Canadian Communities
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study analyzed age and sex-related bone quantity and quality patterns in the historical French-Canadian communities of Pointe-aux-Trembles and Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce. The analyses were undertaken using newly developed techniques in metacarpal radiogrammetry and rib micro-CT assessment. The patterns of bone quantity and quality were used to infer biological and social contributions to individual and community health in the past. Second metacarpals from a sample of 43 individuals from Pointe-aux-Trembles (f=12, m=6) and Sainte-Marie (f=15, m=10) were radiographed and assessed. A 1.9cm region of interest (ROI) was isolated on the diaphyseal surface. Within this ROI, cortical and total bone areas were measured and used to calculate the cortical area index (CAROI). Patterns of bone amount by age category (15-29, 30-49, 50+) and sex were statistically analyzed. There were no statistically significant differences in CAIROI between males and females, and no significant differences were found between any of the age categories. From the total sample of 43 individuals, rib fragments from a sub-sample of 10 individuals were chosen for micro-CT analysis. Five micro-CT slices along a 1cm segment of bone were examined and assigned scores for the appearance of mineralization defects associated with osteomalacia. Scores obtained were examined alongside the age, sex, and CAIROI data. Seven individuals in this sub-sample showed consistent evidence of mineralization defects throughout their ribs, although no patterns were noted between the presence and severity of defects and age, sex, or CAIROI. These results highlight the bioculturally complex nature of individual and community health in the past. Pointe-aux-Trembles and Sainte-Marie both experienced frequent periods of starvation, the spread of infectious disease from urban centers, and a potential lack of vitamins necessary to develop good-quality bone in adequate amounts. Analyzing these results alongside historical context provided insight into the long-term impacts of stress events on individual and community health.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".