Reappraising Medfly Longevity

In this article we explore the usefulness of a quantile regression formulation of reanalyzing a large experimental study that monitored age-specific mortality in a sample of roughly 1.2 million Mediterranean fruit flies. The quantile regression approach appears useful in refining several of the conclusions drawn from the original study including the apparent decline in mortality rates at advanced ages, and the gender crossover effect in survival functions for medflies.

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