Chronological age with maturation of renal function and changes in body composition after birth may also be important [ 2, 16].
This corroborates the fact that the decrease in adiposity is partly explained by pubertal development, because for the same chronological age, those with later maturation are still experiencing an increase in BF%.
Alternatively, peer problems may depend on pubertal timing and relate to disparities between chronological age, social age and biological maturation (e.g. "early maturation" hypothesis (Peterson and Taylor 1980)).
The developmental stage itself may dictate the optimal level of CR; there is no reason to feed the CR group according to the AL chronological requirements, if the duration of growth, maturation and reproductive senescence (RS) varies asymmetrically between the two groups (Fig. 5).
This work represents a new approach toward mapping brain maturity, and may provide a more faithful staging of brain maturation in infants beyond chronological or gestation-corrected age, allowing earlier identification of atypical regional brain development.
Besides, EEG coherence is a mark of physiological brain development and maturation [ 12- 14] increasing with conceptional and chronological age especially in delta and beta range and in a non-linear fashion [ 15- 17].
In the present study it was not practical to characterize the excluded participants in detail, nor to assess pubertal stage of study participants, yet an assessment of maturation might have added to the information available from chronological age.
Maturity is multidimensional and has various components, including chronological age, skeletal age in different areas, the Risser sign, status of the triradiate cartilage, Tanner stage of sexual maturation, age at thelarche and menarche, and several length dimensions like sitting height, subischial leg length, and foot length or shoe size.
Since chronological age does not necessarily correspond with a defined stage in sexual maturation [ 9, 10], use of Tanner staging of sexual maturity can provide a phenotypic assessment of the physiologic age of an individual.
This design not only allows for direct comparison between dyslexics versus controls matched for chronological age and reading ability, but also enables examination of the influence of maturation and its interaction with dyslexia.
14 15 Developmental age is assumed to be linearly related to chronological age, and the timing (or tempo) and the rate (or velocity) of maturation are subject-specific random effects.
