BACKGROUND Growth charts based on data collected in different populations and time periods are key tools to assess children's linear growth. We analyzed the impact of geographic factors and the secular trend on height-for-age charts currently used in European populations, developed up-to-date European growth charts, and studied the effect of using different charts in a sample of growth retarded...

A consistent analysis of natural variability and secular trend in Pacific SSTs in the twentieth century is presented. By focusing on spatial and temporal recurrence, but without imposition of periodicity constraints, this single analysis discriminates between biennial, ENSO, and decadal variabilities, leading to refined evolutionary descriptions, and between these natural variability modes and ...

OBJECTIVES To estimate age at menarche and to assess trends in menarcheal age among Saudi women. METHODS A prospective longitudinal study was conducted among healthy prepubertal female school children and adolescents from September 2006 to July 2012 in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Study participants were invited from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Tanner stage, height, weight, body ma...

OBJECTIVE Standard deviation score or Z-score reference charts are used in some countries in preference to percentile charts and are considered as better tools in assessing children with measurements outside the accepted limits of normality. Growth data for Istanbul children have previously been reported as percentiles; hence, the aim of this study is to present these data in Z-score reference ...

[1] A middleand low-latitude ionospheric theoretical model is used for the first time to assess the effects of the secular variations of geomagnetic field orientation on ionospheric long-term trends over the past century. It is found that the varied geomagnetic field can produce ionospheric long-term trends in both foF2 and hmF2. Since the amplitudes of geomagnetic field change depend on locati...

The goal of this study was to examine age and secular trends in bone and blood lead levels of community-exposed men. Bone and blood lead levels were measured twice, with a 3-year interval between measurements, among participants in a longitudinal study of aging. Seventy subjects (mean age = 66 years, age range = 52-83 years) with repeated measurements of bone and blood lead levels were studied....