Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Small Commercial And Industrial Electricity Consumption In Las Cruces, New Mexico, Andrew Taylor Yurachek

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research examining small commercial and industrial electricity usage patterns have historically received less attention than residential electricity consumption patterns. This study examines electricity as an input to commercial and industrial production in Las Cruces, New Mexico using annual frequency data from 1978 to 2018. Those data examined include labor, per capita personal income, price measures for electricity and natural gas, and weather variables. The long-run and short-run elasticities of the data are then estimated using an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). In the long run, CIS customers in Las Cruces respond to natural gas a complimentary good, and the derived-demand …

On Using Demographic Data With Deprivation Index For Predicting Chronic Diseases, Olugbenga Temitope Iyiola

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Researchers have worked on modeling and predicting the likelihood of developingchronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, using medical data (e.g., heart-rate, blood sugar). However, many of these diseases demonstrate strong links with demographics and socio-economic status (e.g., race, gender, income). It is also less time-consuming to retrieve demographic and socio-economic data, some of which are publicly available through US Census Bureau, than to carry out medical tests. Hence, demographic data can give a quicker estimate of the susceptibility of a person to a chronic disease.

In this work, we study the effect of using medical vs. demographics …

Stability Of Blood Lead Levels In Children With Chronic Low-Level Lead Absorption, Michelle Del Rio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance: Despite the many historical efforts by the U.S. to reduce lead (Pb) in the environment, childhood Pb poisoning continues to be a public health issue today. Pb has been identified as a child hazard because children are highly vulnerable to the effects even at lower levels of exposure (blood lead levels (BLLs) < 10 μg/dL), and these effects can be physical, cognitive, and behavioral. Current state and federal blood lead level screening guidelines for identifying exposed children are based on assumptions that BLLs < 10 μg/dL will remain stable or decline over time (with age); disregard the effects of lowest-range Pb exposure; and disregard Pb levels in children older than approximately age 6. We have observed in past clinical studies that in one U.S./Mexico border community, children in high-risk neighborhoods experienced substantially higher proportions of elevated blood lead levels (CDC reference level of ≥ 5 μg/dL) than the rest of the U.S., and a large proportion of children had detectable blood lead levels. To test current policy assumptions regarding child blood lead level screening, this study examined whether time and/or other possible factors over time, predicted child blood lead levels in children with chronic low-level Pb absorption. Whether time was a significant predictor was examined, and also whether age, sex, and living in families with incomes below the U.S. poverty line, living in an older home, and living near industries predicted child blood lead levels.

Aims and Objectives: Changes in current policy must be evidence-based. The over-arching goal of this study was to test current assumptions that one blood lead level test is sufficient to rule out child lead exposure, and that lead exposure and risk of lead exposure, reliably …

Airborne Lead In El Paso, Texas, Usa, Lisa Marie Paz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite significant strides to minimize lead in our air, water, soil, food, homes, workplaces, and consumer products, sporadic and systemic lead poisoning persists in industrial societies, e.g., the contemporary Flint (Michigan, USA) municipal water tragedy. Because lead exposure is cumulative, the sum of exposure from all sources, it is important to document and update potential community or neighborhood exposure levels from such environmental compartments as air, water, and housing. Here we present ambient airborne lead levels in El Paso, Texas, USA, parsed by particulate matter (PM) size fraction, geography, and season. Dichotomous samplers at 8 stations collected particulate matter continuously …

Comparison Of Blood Lead Levels Between Children In An Urban Setting And Children In A Rural Setting, Juan Manuel Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental heavy metal exposure is a public health problem that is of great concern because it is highly toxic for children. The urban setting in downtown El Paso is historically known to be contaminated through various sources of contamination of heavy metals. The goal of this study was to compare whether children in a historically contaminated urban downtown area had significantly increased levels of lead exposure as compared to children in a demographically similar rural area approximately 20 miles north of the urban center, while controlling for gender and age. Cadmium and mercury were also measured for comparison purposes. It …

The Impacts Of Health Status And Exposure To Environmental Toxins On Children's Grade Point Average In El Paso, Texas, Stephanie Elizabeth Clark

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Studies in the US have found that both exposure to environmental toxins and children's general health status negatively impact children's academic achievement. This Thesis will be made of up two papers. The first examines the impact of exposure to residential air toxins from a variety of sources on student's academic achievement and the second paper incorporates a measure of children's general health status into the statistical model from the first paper. This Thesis employs National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) risk estimates from a variety of sources and individual-level data collected through a mail survey of fourth and fifth grade school …

Lead And Associated Heavy Metal Distribution In El Paso, Texas, Ali Ragab Elkekli

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Contamination by lead and other heavy metals is one of the most important environmental concerns of today, locally and globally. This issue has led scientists and researchers to study the effect of heavy metals and their distribution in the environment. The aim of the present research is to document the concentration and geographic distribution of heavy metals in El Paso.

The selected heavy metals in the El Paso soil are lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, antimony and copper. The soil sample for the study was collected during a previous community lead study (RO1 ESO11367; 2001-2006). 500 superficial soils samples were collected …

Confirmation And Investigation Of Higher Science Curiosity In Juarez Middle School Students Compared To Their Peers In El Paso, Texas, Karla Carmona Miranda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the last 20 years attitudes towards science and science classes in K-12 education have been an important topic of investigation due to the decreasing number of students choosing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related careers, and the increasing need for STEM prepared workers to cover the job demands of the future. The purpose of this study is to confirm a previously measured difference in scientific curiosity between middle school students in El Paso and in Ciudad Juarez, and to collect additional data that might tell us what the possible factors or reasons for this difference are. Our sample …

Evaluation Of Soil Sustainability Along The Rio Grande In West Texas: Changes In Salt Loading And Organic Nutrients Due To Farming Practices, Christine L. Cox

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Growing populations demand an increase in the amount of food being produced, which in turn, puts pressure on the productivity and sustainability of soils. The use of flood irrigation from the Rio Grande has greatly increased the salinity, sodicity, and enhanced leaching of nutrients in the Rio Grande Basin soils. To evaluate soil health, water and soil samples were collected from two pecan, one cotton, and one alfalfa field in western Texas. Each site was equipped with sensors to measure soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity (EC), along with lysimeters at depths of 15, 30, and 60 cm to collect …

Assessing Annual And Seasonal Spatial Variability Of Ambient Pm10 Using Linear Regression Analysis In A United States-Mexico Urban Sprawl, Mario Ivan Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As air quality issues grow progressively in the consciousness of the global community, stakeholders are pressing for epidemiologic studies of air pollution. The effects of chronic exposure to ambient air pollution remain a difficult challenge due to its substantial small-scale spatial variation. Recent approaches to assess intra-urban exposure have employed the use of proximity-based assessment, interpolation methods, emission-meteorological models, dispersions models, and land-use regression (LUR) models.

This thesis assesses the spatial variability of ambient particulate matter (PM10) obtained by five self-governing models for the area of El Paso. Using multiple linear regression analysis five regression-based equations were developed to predict …