title: Metric Sex Determination of the Human Coxal Bone on a Virtual Sample using Decision Trees.
abstract: Decision trees provide an alternative to multivariate discriminant analysis, which is still the most commonly used in anthropometric studies. Our study analyzed the metric characterization of a recent virtual sample of 113 coxal bones using decision trees for sex determination. From 17 osteometric type I landmarks, a dataset was built with five classic distances traditionally reported in the literature and six new distances selected using the two-step ratio method. A ten-fold cross-validation was performed, and a decision tree was established on two subsamples (training and test sets). The decision tree established on the training set included three nodes and its application to the test set correctly classified 92% of individuals. This percentage was similar to the data of the literature. The usefulness of decision trees has been demonstrated in numerous fields. They have been already used in sex determination, body mass prediction, and ancestry estimation. This study shows another use of decision trees enabling simple and accurate sex determination.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France.|Service de Médecine Légale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Savall
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France.|Service de Radiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Purpan, place du docteur Baylac, 31059, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faruch-Bilfeld
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France.|Service de Médecine Légale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.|Service de Radiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dedouit
authors.affiliation: Service de Radiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Purpan, place du docteur Baylac, 31059, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sans
authors.affiliation: Service de Radiologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France.|Service de Médecine Légale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rougé
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie AMIS, UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 37 allées Jules Guesde, 31000, Toulouse, France.|Service de Médecine Légale, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Rangueil, avenue du Professeur Jean Poulhès, 31059, Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Telmon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059925:Anatomic Landmarks; D003663:Decision Trees; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography; D010384:Pelvic Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*
keywords: coxal bone; decision trees; forensic anthropology; forensic science; multislice computed tomography; sexual dimorphism