Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

High Variability In Flood Discharge And Stage Accelerates River Mobility, Chenliang Wu, Wonsuck Kim, Shuo Yang, Frank Tsai, Jeffrey A. Nittrouer, Tian Y. Dong, Duhwan Keum, Kyle M. Straub

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Lateral channel migration is a fundamental process in natural alluvial rivers; however, the factors that control the rate of migration remain unclear. Despite its importance in shaping river morphology, the impact of water discharge on river mobility is still largely unexplored. Here, we leverage a dataset of 64 rivers across the globe to show that higher variability in river discharge and stage promotes higher rates of river migration. To reveal the physical processes behind this relationship, we focused analyses on the lowermost 500 kilometers of the Mississippi River, where a pronounced gradient in water stage variability and migration rate exists. …

Sign Patterns Of Certain Infinite Products, Zeyu Huang, Timothy J. Huber, James Mclaughlin, Pengjun Wang, Yan Xu, Dongxi Ye

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The signs of Fourier coefficients of certain eta quotients are determined by dissecting expansions for theta functions and by applying a general dissection formula for certain classes of quintuple products. A characterization is given for the coefficient sign patterns for

(qi;qi)∞(qp;qp)∞

for integers i>1 and primes p>3. The sign analysis for this quotient addresses and extends a conjecture of Bringmann et al. for the coefficients of (q2;q2)∞(q5;q5)−1∞. The sign distribution for additional classes of eta quotients is considered. This addresses multiple conjectures posed by Bringmann et al.

Converging On The Cepheid Metallicity Dependence: Implications Of Nonstandard Gaia Parallax Recalibration On Distance Measures, Louise Breuval, Gagandeep S. Anand, Richard I. Anderson, Rachael Beaton, Anupam Bhardwaj, Stefano Casertano, Gisella Clementini, Mauricio Cruz Reyes, Giulia De Somma, Lucas M. Macri

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

By comparing Cepheid brightnesses with geometric distance measures including Gaia EDR3 parallaxes, most recent analyses conclude metal-rich Cepheids are brighter, quantified as γ ∼ −0.2 mag dex−1 . While the value of γ has little impact on the determination of the Hubble constant in contemporary distance ladders (due to the similarity of metallicity across these ladders), γ plays a role in gauging the distances to metal-poor dwarf galaxies like the Magellanic Clouds and is of considerable interest in testing stellar models. Recently, B. F. Madore & W. L. Freedman (hereafter MF25) recalibrated Gaia EDR3 parallaxes by adding to them a …

Comparing Machine Learning, Deep Learning, And Reinforcement Learning Performance In Culex Pipiens Predictive Modeling, Wei Yin, Sanad H. Ragab, Michael G. Tyshenko, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo, Tamer Oraby

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Several machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) methods have been used to predict the presence of species in classification problems. Another set of methods, called reinforcement learning (RL), has been used in training agents to perform various tasks, but not in predicting species distribution. Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae), commonly known as the common house mosquito, is a globally distributed species prevalent in temperate and subtropical regions. They serve as a primary vector for West Nile Virus (WNV), a mosquito-borne pathogen that affects humans and other animals. The study objective is to compare the performance of logistic regression, random forest …

Thermodynamic Feasibility Of Nanoenergetic Systems Based On Metal Oxynitrides, Manoj Chhetri, Mkhitar A. Hobosyan, Maxim Zyskin, Karen S. Martirosyan

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

A comprehensive computational study was conducted to identify and evaluate nano-energetic systems utilizing aluminum (Al) as the fuel and a range of metal oxynitrides as oxidizers. The primary objective was to determine combinations that yield highly exothermic reactions, specifically those that maximize gas generation, adiabatic combustion temperature, and energy release. These parameters are critical for optimizing the performance of energetic materials in applications such as controlled energy delivery, propulsion, and pyrotechnics. By systematically analyzing thermodynamic properties including the heat of formation, enthalpy of reaction, Gibbs free energy, and equilibrium reaction products across a range of Al/oxynitride stoichiometries, the study aimed …

Likelihoods For Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background Data Analysis, Gabriele Franciolini, Mauro Pieroni, Angelo Ricciardone, Joseph D. Romano

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a systematic study of likelihood functions used for stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) searches. By dividing the data into many short segments, one customarily takes advantage of the central limit theorem to justify a Gaussian cross-correlation likelihood. We show, with a hierarchy of ever more realistic examples—beginning with a single frequency bin and one detector, and then moving to two and three detectors with white and colored signal and noise—that approximating the exact Whittle likelihood by various Gaussian alternatives can induce systematic biases in the estimation of the SGWB parameters. We derive several approximations for the full likelihood …

Survival Analysis Of Breast Cancer Patients In Texas Using Classical And Machine Learning Methods, Sidketa Fofana, Tamer Oraby, Salique H. Shaham, Everardo Cobos, Manish K. Tripathi

School of Medicine Publications

Background

Breast cancer is considered one of the most common cancers in women worldwide. In this study, we used an 11-year cohort of malignant breast cancer survival data in Texas to investigate the factors that might explain why some breast cancer patients live longer than others.

Methods

We performed standard survival analyses, including generating Kaplan‒Meier survival curves, using the log-rank test, and applying Cox proportional hazards regression to identify the unique features of breast cancer patients and determine the main factors influencing long-term survival. We also conducted a Random Survival Forest analysis for classification and prediction. Finally, we used Mahalanobis …

The Role Of Atmospheric Turbulence On Cloud Droplet Distribution And Droplet Impaction On An Airfoil, Arash Shad, Hashnayne Ahmed, ‪Nadim Zgheib, S. Balachandar, S. A. Sherif

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

We conduct turbulence-informed Euler–Lagrange simulations of droplet-laden flow to examine the effects of atmospheric turbulence on droplet impingement characteristics on a NACA 0012 airfoil. We implement statistical overloading, whereby we inject millions of droplets, ranging in diameter from 1 to 160 microns, upstream of the airfoil at an average streamwise velocity of 120 m/s. Within a fraction of a second, these droplets would have either impinged on the airfoil or continued downstream. While the incoming air flow is maintained uniform, droplet injection is informed by ambient turbulence, affecting both the droplet velocity distribution as well as the size-dependent preferential concentration …

Ecophysiological Benefits Of Industrial Organic Wastes On Alfalfa Yield And Stress Mitigation In Saline Soils, Shugao Fan, Zhuanzhuan Ma, Jiawei Wu, Tianhui Yang, Jincheng Hao, Shumei Chen, Xutong Hu, Ying Zhao

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Rising soil salinity and water scarcity demand sustainable solutions to maintain crop productivity. This study evaluated four agro-industrial organic amendments—fish emulsion, neem cake, coffee grounds, and seaweed extract on alfalfa (Medicago sativa) under combined salinity and drought stress, assessing their effects on soil respiration, plant physiology, and yield. Soil CO₂ efflux varied significantly among treatments: coffee grounds induced the highest microbial activity (6.2 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), suggesting rapid decomposition, while neem cake exhibited stable emissions (3.8 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹), indicating slower organic matter turnover. Fish emulsion showed intermediate dynamics, peaking at 4.8 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ by week 4, …

Paclobutrazol Enhances Tall Fescue Salt Tolerance Via Physiological And Root System Architecture Modulation, Shugao Fan, Xindi Sun, Guohao Liang, Zhuanzhuan Ma, Jincheng Hao, Jiawei Wu, Ying Zhao

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Salinity represents a major global constraint on crop productivity. Promoting the cultivation of tall fescue in saline environments offers not only nutritional advantages for livestock but also enhances its potential for ornamental use. In this mesocosm study, we examined the effects of paclobutrazol (PBZ) on tall fescue performance under salt stress, focusing on key physiological traits to evaluate salt tolerance.

Results: Under high salt stress, paclobutrazol application increased the total number of lateral roots by 85%, from 18.39 to 34.04, and widened their growth angle by 24%, from 24.10° to 29.88°, fundamentally enhancing topsoil exploration. This reconfigured root system …

Pfaffian Solution For Dark–Dark Soliton To The Coupled Complex Modified Korteweg–De Vries Equation, Chenxi Li, Xiaochuan Liu, Bao-Feng Feng

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study the coupled complex modified Korteweg–de Vries (ccmKdV) equation by combining the Hirota’s method and the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) reduction method. First, we show that the bilinear form of the ccmKdV equation under nonzero boundary condition is linked to the discrete BKP hierarchy through Miwa transformation. Based on this finding, we construct the dark–dark soliton solution in the pfaffian form. The dynamical behaviors for one- and two-soliton are analyzed and illustrated.

Gw241011 And Gw241110: Exploring Binary Formation And Fundamental Physics With Asymmetric, High-Spin Black Hole Coalescences, A. G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, R. Espinosa, J. Lawrence, Francisco Llamas Villarreal, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Miriam Ramos Arevalo, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We report the observation of gravitational waves from two binary black hole coalescences during the fourth observing run of the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA detector network, GW241011 and GW241110. The sources of these two signals are characterized by rapid and precisely measured primary spins, nonnegligible spin–orbit misalignment, and unequal mass ratios between their constituent black holes. These properties are characteristic of binaries in which the more massive object was itself formed from a previous binary black hole merger and suggest that the sources of GW241011 and GW241110 may have formed in dense stellar environments in which repeated mergers can take place. As the …

An Efficient Self-Supervised Learning Framework For Swarm Robot Trajectory Analysis, Brooklyn Berry, Gaukhar Nurbek, Juan Manuel Perez, Richard Tapia, Qi Lu, Yifeng Gao

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Swarm robotics leverages groups of autonomous robots to perform complex tasks collaboratively. Recently, there has been growing interest in the Self-Supervised Learning framework (SSL) for social robots, yet very little research has been done on designing a SSL framework for foraging swarm robots systems. In this paper, to address the two challenges above, we proposed a novel efficient self-supervised learning framework. Specifically, we proposed 1) a shared weight multi-instance based encoder-decoder structure for model pre-training; and 2) an embedding series compression strategy to reduce the space cost in inference stage. Experiments show our system can match the performance of standard …

Causal Predictive Modeling Of Survival Of Lung And Bronchus Cancer Patients Diagnosed During 2010–2011 In Texas, Zeinab Mohamed, Sidketa Fofana, Everardo Cobos, Manish K. Tripathi, Tamer Oraby

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Lung and Bronchus cancer is the most fatal type of cancer in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, there were more than 127,000 deaths from lung cancer in 2023. Lung cancer care cost 23.8 billion dollars in 2020. In Texas, only 22.8% of lung cancer patients survived 5 years or more past diagnosis based on 2012-2018 data.

Aim: This study evaluates the survival length of lung and bronchus cancer patients in Texas using advanced statistical and machine learning methods applied to an 11-year cohort study from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. It also quantifies the …

Existence, Uniqueness, Stability And Exact Expression Of Periodic Traveling Wave Solutions Of The Higher-Order Cubic-Quintic Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation, Nan Wang, Yuqian Zhou, Zhijun Qiao

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, the high-order cubic-quintic nonlinear Schrödinger equation is considered. By overcoming the difficulties caused by its non-integrability, we completely explore the existence, uniqueness and stability of the limit cycle of the equation. It enables us to accurately give the explicit parameter representation of its periodic wave solution in a special form for the first time. These results provide not only a new idea of obtaining periodic solutions in complex nonlinear systems, but also the important theoretical support for understanding related wave phenomena.

Constraining Deviations From The Kerr Metric Via A Bumpy Parametrization And Particle Swarm Optimization In Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals, Xiaobo Zou, Xingyu Zhong, Wen-Biao Han, Soumya D. Mohanty

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The measurement of deviations in the Kerr metric using gravitational-wave observations will provide a clear signal of new physics. Previous studies have developed multiple parametrizations (e.g., “bumpy” spacetime) to characterize such deviations in extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs). These approaches often rely on the Fisher information matrix (FIM) formalism to quantify the constraining power of future space-borne gravitational-wave detectors, such as LISA and Tianqin. For instance, using the analytical kludge waveform model under varying source configurations, such methods have achieved constraint sensitivity levels ranging from 10−4 to 10−2 on the dimensionless bumpy parameter 𝛿⁢˜𝑄 for LISA. In this paper, we advance …

Gw231123: A Binary Black Hole Merger With Total Mass 190–265 M⊙, A. G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, R. Espinosa, J. Lawrence, Francisco Llamas Villarreal, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Miriam Ramos Arevalo, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

On 2023 November 23 the two LIGO observatories both detected GW231123, a gravitational-wave signal consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses and (90\% credible intervals), at luminosity distance 0.7-4.1 Gpc and redshift of , and a network signal-to-noise ratio of 20.7. Both black holes exhibit high spins, and respectively. A massive black hole remnant is supported by an independent ringdown analysis. Some properties of GW231123 are subject to large systematic uncertainties, as indicated by differences in inferred parameters between signal models. The primary black hole lies within or above the theorized mass gap where black holes between …

Predicting Species Assemblages At Wildlife Crossing Structures Using Multivariate Regression Of Principal Coordinates, Thomas J. Yamashita, Daniel G. Scognamillo, Kevin W. Ryer, Richard Kline, Michael E. Tewes, John H. Young Jr., Jason V. Lombardi

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Wildlife populations are in decline due to human threats, including highways. Strategies for reducing road impacts on wildlife include wildlife fencing which keep animals off roads and wildlife crossing structures (WCSs) which provide safe passage across roads. Wildlife crossing structures are diverse and transportation managers are often interested in identifying which WCS designs are effective for target species so a model that predicts target species usage of WCSs is likely to be beneficial to managers and biologists. Wildlife crossing structures are typically built for select species but are utilized by other species, so it may be beneficial to examine WCS …

Inferred Global Dense Residue Transition Graphs From Primary Structure Sequences Enable Protein Interaction Prediction Via Directed Graph Convolutional Neural Networks, Islam A. Ebeid, Haoteng Tang, Pengfei Gu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: Accurate prediction of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is crucial for understanding cellular functions and advancing the development of drugs. While existing in-silico methods leverage direct sequence embeddings from Protein Language Models (PLMs) or apply Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to 3D protein structures, the main focus of this study is to investigate less computationally intensive alternatives. This work introduces a novel framework for the downstream task of PPI prediction via link prediction.

Methods: We introduce a two-stage graph representation learning framework, ProtGram-DirectGCN. First, we developed ProtGram, a novel approach that models a protein's primary structure as a hierarchy of …

The Perfect Host: Jwst Cepheid Observations In A Background-Free Type Ia Supernova Host Confirm No Bias In Hubble-Constant Measurements, Adam G. Riess, Siyang Li, Gagandeep S. Anand, Wenlong Yuan, Louise Breuval, Stefano Casertano, Lucas M. Macri, Dan Scolnic, Yukei S. Murakami, Alexei V. Filippenko

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Cycle 1 JWST observations of Cepheids in Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) hosts resolved their red-giant-dominated near-infrared backgrounds, sharply reducing crowding and showing that photometric bias in lower-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data does not account for the Hubble tension. We present cycle 2 JWST observations of >100 Cepheids in NGC 3447, a unique system that pushes this test to the limit by transitioning from low to no background contamination. NGC 3447, an SN Ia host at D ≈ 25 Mpc, is an interacting pair comprising (i) a spiral with mixed stellar populations, typical of H0 calibrators, and (ii) a …

Turning Waste Into Fertilizer: Aloe Vera Leaf Shavings Improve Plant Growth And Support Soil Fertility In Organic Systems, Isaiah Edward Jaramillo, Carine Cocco, James Jihoon Kang, Chu-Lin Cheng, Engil Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The Aloe vera industry discards large amounts of outer leaf tissue (“shavings”), creating an opportunity to repurpose this byproduct as a sustainable fertilizer. This study evaluated whether aloe shavings can serve as a plant-based alternative to compost in organic Aloe vera production. A field trial in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas tested three treatments: aloe shavings (applied to supply 39 kg N ha−1), organic compost (39 kg N ha−1), and a non-fertilized control. Laboratory incubations further assessed nitrogen mineralization and microbial respiration. Aloe shavings significantly enhanced vegetative growth: leaf number increased from 5.7 to 12.3 leaves per plant …

Factors Influencing Plant Community Structure And Composition Of Restored Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forests, Jerald T. Garrett, Audrey J. Hicks, Christopher A. Gabler

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas is a biodiversity hotspot due to its high alpha, beta, and gamma diversity and high regional endemism, which are at high risk of degradation. The region has lost 95% of its native thornforest habitat primarily due to agricultural and urban expansion. This study aims to evaluate the current vegetative structure and composition of restored thornforest sites located in the LRGV to identify restoration methods and site characteristics that affect forest restoration outcomes. Twelve restored thornforest sites were selected for this study that varied in time since restoration, patch size, degree of isolation, …

Tillage Legacy, Grasses And Soil Texture Shape Soil Organic Carbon Recovery In Semi-Arid Woodland, Samantha Colunga, Alejandro Fierro-Cabo, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Engil Pereira

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Soil degradation from intensive tillage poses a critical barrier to carbon sequestration, particularly in semi-arid regions where low rainfall limits ecosystem recovery. As climate change expands arid zones globally, understanding the long-term potential for soil organic carbon (SOC) recovery in degraded lands becomes increasingly urgent. Here, we analyze reforested chronosequences (4–36 years post-abandonment) in formerly cultivated subtropical thornscrub woodlands to assess SOC dynamics across gradients of soil texture and degradation. We introduce a novel degradation index (DI), integrating SOC deficit and grass dominance, to evaluate how invasive grasses, commonly overlooked in restoration metrics, impede nitrogen (N2)-fixing tree establishment and, consequently, …

Follow Me Into Math: Near-Peer Influencers Take The Stage, Aaron T. Wilson, Sergey Grigorian, Mayra Ortiz Galarza, Xiaohui Wang

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Young people like to be entertained, and to entertain others. What if students were to invest enough of their time and effort into learning topics from our mathematics courses to become experts in the eyes of their peers? In this study we positioned college students and high school students as mathematical performers on the stage in front of their nearpeers, for whom they became math influencers, developing and presenting MathShows. The paper shows readers how we positioned students on the stage, using a 7-step MathShow Design Process informed by a Neer-peer Mathematical Mentoring framework. Of import for educators, researchers and …

Rogue Wave Patterns Associated With Adler–Moser Polynomials In The Nonlocal Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation, Tingyou Wang, Zhenyun Qin, Gui Mu, Fuzhuang Zheng, Zhijun Qiao

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, novel rogue wave patterns in the nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) are investigated by means of asymptotic analysis, including heart-pentagon, oval-triangle, and fan-triangle. It is demonstrated that when multiple free parameters get considerably large, rogue wave patterns can approximately be predicted by the root structures of Adler–Moser polynomials. These polynomials, which extend the Yablonskii–Vorob’ev polynomial hierarchy, exhibit richer geometric shapes in their root distributions. The (x,t)-plane is partitioned into three regions and through a combination of asymptotic results in different regions, unreported rogue wave patterns can be probed. Predicted solutions are compared with true rogue waves in …

Topoimages: Incorporating Local Topology Encoding Into Deep Learning Models For Medical Image Classification, Pengfei Gu, Hongxiao Wang, Yejia Zhang, Huimin Li, Chaoli Wang, Danny Z. Chen

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Topological structures in image data, such as connected components and loops, play a crucial role in understanding image content (e.g., biomedical objects). Despite remarkable successes of numerous image processing methods that rely on appearance information, these methods often lack sensitivity to topological structures when used in general deep learning (DL) frameworks. In this paper, we introduce a new general approach, called TopoImages (for Topology Images), which computes a new representation of input images by encoding local topology of patches. In TopoImages, we leverage persistent homology (PH) to encode geometric and topological features inherent in image patches. Our main objective is …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Bridge Grate And Pipe Cattle Guard Designed To Mitigate Ocelot Road Mortality On Texas State Highway, Rupesh Maharjan, John H. Young Jr., Kevin W. Ryer, Md. Saydur Rahman, Richard J. Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

The mitigated and fenced section of State Highway 100, extending from Laguna Vista to Los Fresnos, includes five wildlife crossing structures and 16 modified cattle guards (also called wildlife guards) installed to mitigate ocelot road mortality. Bridge grate and pipe wildlife guards were deployed at vehicle entries, and we evaluated their effectiveness in preventing meso-carnivores and ungulates from entering the roadway through the fence gaps from April 2020 to 2024. Wildlife guards collectively were >82% effective in repelling ungulate attempts to enter the roadway, while only 16.64% of meso-carnivore attempts were repelled. The pipe wildlife guard (PWG) design repelled 86.79% …

Tess Light Curves And Period Changes In Low-Mass Eclipsing Binary Bb Persei, Marek Wolf, Petr Zasche, Miloslav Zejda, Martin Mašek, Andrej Mudray, Hana Kučáková, Waldemar Ogłoza, Jaroslav Merc, Jan Kára, Vojtěch Dienstbier

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a detailed analysis of the low-mass detached eclipsing binary system BB Persei, which contains two K-type stars in a circular orbit with a short period of 0.4856 d. We used light curves from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess), which observed BB Per in five sectors, to determine its photometric properties and a precise orbital ephemeris. The solution of the Tess light curve in Phoebe results in a detached configuration, where the temperature of the primary component was fixed to T 1 = 5 300 K according to Lamost, which gives us T 2 = 5 050 ± …

Six New Doubly Eclipsing Quadruples In A 2+2 Architecture, Petr Zasche, Hana Kučáková, Jan Kára, Jaroslav Merc, Z. Henzl, Martin Mašek, L. Červinka, Vojtěch Dienstbier

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The study presents a confirmation of six quadruples with two sets of eclipses that have the 2+2 architecture. These so-called doubly eclipsing systems still present a quite rare group of stars. We collected all available photometric data and carried out a detailed analysis of them. In addition to the precise TESS photometry used to model the light curves for both inner eclipsing binaries, photometric survey data were also used, and more than 100 nights of our own dedicated observations were carried out. These were mainly used for the detection of the long-term evolution of orbital periods. Thanks to these data, …

Early-Life Exposure To Organic Chemical Pollutants As Assessed In Primary Teeth And Cardiometabolic Risk In Mexican American Children: A Pilot Study, Vidya S. Farook, Feroz Akhtar, Rector Arya, Alice Yau, Srinivas Mummidi, Juan Lopez Alvarenga, Alvaro Diaz-Badillo, Roy G. Resendez, John Blangero

Human Genetics Publications

Early-life exposure to organic chemicals (OCs) may influence childhood obesity and associated cardiometabolic risk. These conditions have been shown to disproportionately affect minority populations such as Mexican Americans (MAs). However, information on the impact of organic chemicals on cardiometabolic risk in MA children is limited. Therefore, we conducted a pilot study to assess the extent to which exposure to organic chemicals influences cardiometabolic traits (CMTs) in MA children. We recalled 25 children from a previous study and collected 25 primary teeth from them. Chemical analyses of the teeth were performed using established protocols. Target analytes included acetaminophen (APAP); 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy), …