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- Biological variability in human body composition : implication in the rules and methodology research areasPublication . Silva, Analiza Mónica Lopes de Almeida; Sardinha, Luis Fernando Cordeiro Bettencourt; Heymsfield, StevenThis thesis presents five investigations related to the body composition rules and methodology research areas. In the rules, newly developed methods such as in vivo neutron activation analysis are used as the reference to evaluate the assumption of the stable mineral-to-protein density in Siri's three-compartment model for estimating total-body-fat mass. In the methodology area, the assessment of extracellular water (ECW) with a dilution method and whole-body counting showed significant differences in the fluid distribution-age relations among race groups, with the largest age-related differences observed in African American subjects. In addiction, normative values using a recently developed statistical technique for testing the significance of conditioning variables to generate equations for the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles of ECW were developed. The remaining investigations deal with the evaluation and calibration of body composition methods. Hence,widely used methods, such as dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and air displacement plethysmography in fat mass assessment, were compared with a reference multicompartmental molecular model in a adolescent athletic population. Finally, calibration models were developed for bone mineral content, lean soft tissue, and fat mass filling a methodological gap in the DXA system when subjects taller than DXA scan area need to be evaluated.