What is a migrant death? An operational definition for a more accurate enumeration of migrant mortality along the US-Mexico border.

Over the last forty years an indeterminate number of persons, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, have died along the US-Mexico border during migration, fleeing poverty, armed conflict, situations of violence, and disasters. An accurate accounting of migrant deaths along the southern US border is the first step toward an understanding of the extent and the contributing factors of these deaths. In this article, we describe a key aspect of our collaborative work aimed at developing a more representative account of migrant mortality along the southwestern US border: the determination of criteria for inclusion of specific forensic cases as "migrant.

Stature estimation equations for modern American Indians in the American Southwest.

Stature estimation is a core component to the biological profile in forensic anthropology casework. Here we provide mathematical equations for estimating stature for contemporary American Indians (AI), which currently are lacking in forensic anthropology. Drawing on postmortem computed tomography data from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database we regressed cadaveric length on four long bone length measures of the tibia, femur, and humerus to produce 11 combinations of models.

No relationship found between dental fluctuating asymmetry, birthweight, and birth term in two modern North American samples.

Objective: Deciduous dental crowns primarily develop during gestation and early infancy and embody early life stress exposures. Composite measures of dental fluctuating asymmetry (DFA) generated from the deciduous teeth may therefore indicate cumulative gestational stress in developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) studies. This study examines whether higher composite measures of deciduous DFA are associated with low birthweight and prematurity, two aspects of birth phenotype consistently associated with increased morbidity and mortality risks in adulthood.

Sex-specific effects of environmental temperature during gestation on fluctuating asymmetry in deciduous teeth.

Objectives: External environmental heat exposure during gestation impacts the physiology of human development in utero, but evidence for these impacts has not yet been explored in dentition. We examined deciduous teeth for fluctuating asymmetry (FA), a measure of developmental instability, together with gestational environmental temperature data drawn from historical weather statistics.

Materials And Methods: We measured dental casts from the longitudinal Burlington Growth Study, representing 172 participants (ages 3-6 years) with health records.

Error and bias in race and ethnicity descriptions in medical examiner records in New Mexico: Consequences for understanding mortality among Hispanic/Latinos.

Researchers use public records from deceased individuals to identify trends in manners and causes of death. Errors in the description of race and ethnicity can affect the inferences researchers draw, adversely impacting public health policies designed to eliminate health inequity. Using the New Mexico Decedent Image Database, we examine: 1) the accuracy of death investigator descriptions of race and ethnicity by comparing their reports to those from next of kin (NOK), 2) the impact of decedent age and sex on disagreement between death investigators and NOK, and 3) the relationship between investigators' descriptions of decedent race and ethnicity and cause and manner of death from forensic pathologists (n = 1813).

A biological approach to adult sex differences in skeletal indicators of childhood stress.

Objectives: In previous work examining the etiology of cribra orbitalia (CO) and porotic hyperostosis (PH) in a contemporary juvenile mortality sample, we noted that males had higher odds of having CO lesions than females. Here, we examine potential reasons for this pattern in greater detail. Four non-mutually exclusive mechanisms could explain the observed sex differences: (1) sex-biased mortality; (2) sexual dimorphism in immune responses; (3) sexual dimorphism in bone turnover; or (4) sexual dimorphism in marrow conversion.

South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region.

The genetic prehistory of human populations in Central America is largely unexplored leaving an important gap in our knowledge of the global expansion of humans. We report genome-wide ancient DNA data for a transect of twenty individuals from two Belize rock-shelters dating between 9,600-3,700 calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal. BP).

Refined, regionally-specific data standards reveal heterogeneity in Hispanic death records.

Hispanic ethnicity can be captured with differing levels of granularity using various data standards, including those from the Office of Management and Budget, Health and Human Services and National Academy of Medicine. Previous research identified seven subgroups of Hispanics in New Mexico using open-ended interviews and information about the culture/history of the state. We examined age and manner of death to determine whether differences among subgroups are hidden by less-refined categorization.

Colonialism, ethnogenesis, and biogeographic ancestry in the US Southwest.

Objective: Differences between self-perceived biogeographic ancestry and estimates derived from DNA are potentially informative about the formation of ethnic identities in different sociohistorical contexts. Here, we compared self-estimates and DNA-estimates in New Mexico, where notions of shared ancestry and ethnic identity have been shaped by centuries of migration and admixture.

Materials And Methods: We asked 507 New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMS) to list their ethnic identity and to estimate their percentages of European and Native American ancestry.

Conventional microscopy makes perikymata count and spacing data feasible for large samples.

Objectives: Current methods of quantifying defects of dental enamel (DDE) include either gross or low-level examination for linear enamel hypoplasia, histological analysis of striae of Retzius, or scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of a tooth or a tooth cast. Gross examination has been shown to miss many defects. Other methods can be destructive, require transporting samples, and are expensive.

Childhood dietary quality predicts adult facial fluctuating asymmetry in contemporary New Mexicans.

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in adults is thought to reflect specific types of developmental stress. If true, adult FA may be a proxy for developmental stress in past as well as current populations. To date, studies of the link between development and adult FA have produced ambiguous results due to insufficient measurement data for childhood environments.

Developing the Minimum Dataset for the New Mexico Decedent Image Database.

Background: A minimum dataset (MDS) can be determined ad hoc by an investigator or small team; by a metadata expert; or by using a consensus method to take advantage of the global knowledge and expertise of a large group of experts. The first method is the most commonly applied.

Objective: Here, we describe a use of the third approach using a modified Delphi method to determine the optimal MDS for a dataset of full body computed tomography scans.

Geographic and temporal diversity in dental morphology reflects a history of admixture, isolation, and drift in African Americans.

Objectives: While genetic studies have documented variation in admixture proportions in contemporary African Americans across the US, relatively little is known about the socio-historical roots of this variation. Our goal in this study is to use dental morphology to explore the socio-historical correlates of admixture, localized gene flow, and drift in African Americans.

Methods: Our data are ordinally-graded dental morphological traits scored in 196 Africans, 335 Europeans and European Americans, 291 pre-Spanish-contact Native Americans, and 722 African Americans.

Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis are associated with respiratory infections in a contemporary mortality sample from New Mexico.

Objectives: Cribra orbitalia (CO) and porotic hyperostosis (PH) are porous cranial lesions (PCLs) classically associated with iron-deficiency anemia in bioarchaeological contexts. However, recent studies indicate a need to reassess the interpretation of PCLs. This study addresses the potential health correlates of PCLs in a contemporary sample by examining relationships between the known cause of death (COD) and PCL presence/absence.

Early isotopic evidence for maize as a staple grain in the Americas.

Maize is a cultigen of global economic importance, but when it first became a staple grain in the Americas, was unknown and contested. Here, we report direct isotopic dietary evidence from 52 radiocarbon-dated human skeletons from two remarkably well-preserved rock-shelter contexts in the Maya Mountains of Belize spanning the past 10,000 years. Individuals dating before ~4700 calendar years before present (cal B.

Extracting and Standardizing Medical Examiner Data to Improve Health.

Data from medical examiner offices are not commonly used in informatics but may contain information not in medical records. However, the vast majority of data is not standardized and is available only in large free text fields. We sought to extract information from the medical examiner database using Canary, a natural language processing tool.

Colonialism and the co-evolution of ethnic and genetic structure in New Mexico.

Objective: Socially constructed ethnic identities are frequently rooted in beliefs about common descent that form when people with disparate cultures, languages, and biology come into contact. This study explores connections between beliefs about common descent, as represented by ethnic nomenclatures, and histories of migration and isolation ascertained from genomic data in New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMS).

Materials And Methods: We interviewed 507 NMS who further identified using one of seven ethnic terms that they associated with beliefs about connections to past ancestors.

Sociocultural determinants of health and wealth in historic African Americans.

In this study, we examine the impacts of individual ancestry and socioeconomic status (SES) on health in historic African Americans through bioarchaeological means. We estimate ancestry from dental morphology and SES from the costs of coffin hardware. We include 188 adult individuals from Freedman's Cemetery in Dallas, Texas, and 2,301 individuals of African and European descent for comparison.

Standardizing Data from the Dead.

A database of full-body CT scans and associated lifestyle and health data from decedents who underwent an autopsy at the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) is under construction. The dataset has 68 metadata fields containing data from the OMI's database and interviews with next of kin. Some metadata fields could be mapped to existing standards, but the majority of fields required some modifications to current standards or the creation of new standards.

Informativeness of dental morphology in ancestry estimation in African Americans.

Objectives: Our objective is to assess the informativeness of dental morphology in estimating biogeographic ancestry in African Americans.

Materials And Methods: The data are 62 dental morphological traits scored as nondichotomized and dichotomized in 797 individuals, 992,601 SNPs from 271 individuals, and 645 STRs from 177 individuals. Each dataset consists of Africans, Europeans, and African Americans.

Associations between ethnic identity, regional history, and genomic ancestry in New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent.

This study examines associations between ethnic identity, regional history, and genomic ancestry in New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMS). In structured interviews, we asked 507 NMS to select from a list of eight ethnic identity terms identified in previous research. We estimated genomic ancestry for each individual from 291,917 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and compared genomic ancestry, age, and birthplace between groups of individuals who identified using each ethnic identity term.

Social Identity in New Mexicans of Spanish-Speaking Descent Highlights Limitations of Using Standardized Ethnic Terminology in Research.

In this study, we evaluated the extent to which regional history has shaped the social identity nomenclature in New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMSD). We asked 507 NMSD to list the social-identity terms they used to describe themselves and their parents, and we examined the correspondence between these choices and family ties to the region, birthplace, and continental ancestry. NMSD frequently identified using the regional terms "Nuevomexicano/a" (15%) and "Spanish" (12%).

Social-group identity and population substructure in admixed populations in New Mexico and Latin America.

We examined the relationship between continental-level genetic ancestry and racial and ethnic identity in an admixed population in New Mexico with the goal of increasing our understanding of how racial and ethnic identity influence genetic substructure in admixed populations. Our sample consists of 98 New Mexicans who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino (NM-HL) and who further categorized themselves by race and ethnic subgroup membership. The genetic data consist of 270 newly-published autosomal microsatellites from the NM-HL sample and previously published data from 57 globally distributed populations, including 13 admixed samples from Central and South America.

Can Cephalometrics Discriminate Between the Sexes in a Diverse Juvenile Sample?

A critical component of the biological profile is sex estimation. Methods commonly used for sex estimation in adults do not work well for juveniles. Population-specific studies have used cephalometrics to estimate juvenile sex with 80-90% accuracy.