Determining which of various 'final height' definitions is most applicable to the data sets is a useful preceding step for studies concerning adult stature prediction. This paper presents an examination of three definitions and their validity when practically applied to two different longitudinal data sets. Two data series examined in this study are T-data (31 boys and 35 girls born between 1967 and 1978) and H-data (113 girls born between 1956 and 1966). Three definitions of final height applied to the data are: (1) Final stature at 18 years of age (Fht (18)); (2) Stature after a year with an annual increment less than 0.5 cm (Fht (0.5)); and (3) The highest measurement (Fht (hst)). The results of this study suggest the greatest height of an individual measurement (Fht (hst)) is the most effective definition of 'final stature' for practical use. This definition can be applied to various types of data, whether measurements are obtained from individuals during school periods, or whether measurements are obtained from individuals until the cessation of growth.

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A number of papers on the growth of Chinese children have been published in local journals in China in the Chinese language. However, we noticed that height and weight are the main focus of these studies. Because leg length relative to height is of interest in human biology, the current study focuses on the growth of this proportion. Two groups of Chinese children were investigated: 587 boys and 625 girls in Beijing in 1997 aged 6-18 years, and 579 boys and 615 girls in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, in 2005 aged 7-18 years. Height and leg length (iliospinal height) were measured, and the ratio of leg length to height was calculated for each child. Mean distance curves and spline-smoothed yearly increment curves were obtained. In order to clarify the difference between the two groups of Chinese children, data from Japanese children were adopted as a control. The Beijing children were taller than the Xilinhot children, but no difference was detected in leg length between them. The ages at 'takeoff' and 'peak' obtained on the yearly increment spline-smoothed curve of height in the Xilinhot children boys were 1.2-1.8 years earlier, respectively, than those of the Beijing boys. In the girls, these two ages were almost the same in the two cities, although the 'peak' was 1.8 cm greater in the Xilinhot girls. Leg length in the boys was almost the same in both Beijing and Xilinhot. In the girls of the Xilinhot group, leg length was greater after puberty. Consequently, the ratio of leg length to height was greater in the Xilinhot children than the Beijing children. It is suggested, in China, that socioeconomic factors influence growth of height to a greater extent than growth of leg length, and that leg length and leg length relative to height might be controlled by a genetic factor.

The approximate surface development, skin length, and surface area of the left side of the trunk of 51 female students were compared with regard to static and stretched postures. The data for each subject were obtained from geometrical models generated by moiré topography with a computer. When the chest was stretched, the anterior surface, the shoulder line, and the arm-base line were transformed from concave to convex, and a gap oriented toward the nipple widened out. The skin elongated vertically and transversely, except at the side of the waistline, where the skin contracted. The area at the top of the trunk decreased about 25%, while the other parts of the trunk increased 8-15%. The total anterior area was 1.20 m2 for the static posture and 1.29 m2 for the stretched posture. When the posterior surface was stretched, the shoulder line changed from convex to concave, the side line from quasi-straight to concave, and gaps oriented toward the chest line disappeared. The skin elongated most at the infrascapular region (20-35%), while the neck base line contracted (-11%). The center of the back and the lower arm base areas enlarged the most (25%) and the lumbar area enlarged the least (12%). The total posterior area was 1.26 m2 in the static posture and 1.37 m2 in the back-stretched posture. In conclusion, the back skin elongated and enlarged more when stretched than the frontal skin.

We studied the dorsal moire topographies of a group of 142 girls with an average age of 13.7 and another group of 113 girls with an average age of 16.4. Of the respective groups, 60 and 68 subjects were measured anthropometrically.They were photographed in a natural standing position, and 15% of the former group and 26% of the latter were excluded from the study beforehand because they had more than 7.5mm left-right dorsal depth difference.The Type II high-thoracic moire pattern was most frequent (85% and 86%) in each group. Neither left-right differences or age group differences were detected in the length, depth and angle measurements on the dorsal moire photographs.The angle between the posterior median line and the left/right prominent point on the back fit the Gaussian distribution. The girls with Type I or II thoracic moire pattern were obese as indicated by their skinfold thickness, Rohrer index, the body mass index, and circumferential measurements. Principal component analysis showed that general body thickness and back depth formed opposite clusters on PC I, dorsal length contrasts with dorsal angle on PC II, and general body length formed a cluster on PC III.