Work by [Tamura](http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=euclid.ojm/1200787102) (extending results by [Luo and Stong](http://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1993-337-02/S0002-9947-1993-1134759-6/S0002-9947-1993-1134759-6.pdf)) shows the following.

> **Theorem:** For any closed 3-manifold $M$ and any rational number $4.5 < r < 6$ there is a triangulation $T$ of $M$ for which the average edge-degree $\mu(T)$ is $r$. Here the *degree* of an edge $e$ is the number of 3-simplices having $e$ as a face.

Now, suppose $T$ is a triangulation of a closed $n$-manifold $M$. (NOTE: By triangulation, I mean a combinatorial $n$-manifold, but results using a more relaxed definition would be great.) Let us extend the notion of average edge-degree to something I like to call the **average bone-degree**

$$\mu(T)=\frac{1}{f_{n-2}}\sum_{\tau^{n-2}\in T} \mbox{deg}(\tau^{n-2}).$$

Here $f_k$ is the number of $k$-simplices in $T$, the sum runs over all codimension-2 simplices (called the *bones* of $T$), and deg($\tau^{n-2}$) is the number of $n$-simplices in $T$ with $\tau^{n-2}$ as a face.

Note that by simple double-counting arguments we may alternately write this as

$$\mu(T) = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}\frac{f_n}{f_{n-2}} = n \frac{f_{n-1}}{f_{n-2}}.$$

> **Question:** Does anyone know of results similar to the theorem above but for $n\geq 4$? That is, have the possible values for $\mu(T)$ been characterized when $n\geq 4$? Results for any manifold $M$ would be great.

I seem to remember stumbling across something like this for $n=4$ once, but I can no longer find it. I know that there is a large body of research on the "f-vectors" of manifolds, $\mathbf{f}(T) = \left( f_0, f_1, \ldots, f_k \right)$, so perhaps someone familiar with this work can help. 

Thanks for any assistance pointing me in the correct direction!