Publications by authors named "Madrigal J"

Objective: Elevated pesticide concentrations have been found in dust from homes with residents who use agricultural pesticides, but few studies have compared these concentrations to quantitative measures of their use. We evaluated household pesticide dust concentrations in relation to quantitative, active ingredient-specific metrics of agricultural pesticide use in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture Study.

Methods: Participants provided vacuum dust samples (2013-2018) and information regarding recent (last 12 months) and lifetime pesticide use.

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Background: Inorganic arsenic in drinking water (wAs) is linked to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. However, risk is uncertain at lower levels present in US community water supplies (CWS), currently regulated at the federal maximum contaminant level of .

Objectives: We evaluated the relationship between long-term wAs exposure from CWS and cardiovascular disease in the California Teachers Study cohort.

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Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) are challenging vestibular disorders with overlapping symptoms that complicate diagnosis and treatment. BPPV causes transient vertigo with head movements, while PPPD involves persistent dizziness and unsteadiness. Both significantly impact the quality of life, including emotional well-being.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the link between agricultural pesticide use near homes in California and the levels of those pesticides found in household dust, considering factors like crop location and wind direction.
  • Researchers collected carpet dust samples from 578 homes and measured specific herbicides and fungicides, using data from the California Pesticide Use Reporting (CPUR) database.
  • Results showed that higher pesticide application densities were strongly correlated with increased pesticide concentrations in dust, with glyphosate and 2,4-D showing particularly high levels, suggesting a significant impact on residential exposure.
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Soil phosphorus (P), which is essential for ecosystem functioning, undergoes notable changes after fire. However, the extent to which fire characteristics affect P dynamics remains largely unknown. This study investigated the impact of type of fire (prescribed burning and natural wildfires) of different levels of severity on P dynamics in Mediterranean soils.

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Background: Chemicals emitted from industrial facilities include known or suspected mammary carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, but epidemiologic studies are limited. We evaluated associations between air emissions of multiple carcinogenic chemicals and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in a large prospective U.S.

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Preserving genetic diversity and adaptive potential while avoiding inbreeding depression is crucial for the long-term conservation of natural populations. Despite demographic increases, traces of past bottleneck events at the genomic level should be carefully considered for population management. From this perspective, the peninsular Italian wolf is a paradigmatic case.

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Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a common vestibular disorder characterized by brief episodes of vertigo triggered by specific head movements. Despite its short duration, BPPV significantly impacts the quality of life. A comprehensive search of electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, was performed to gather peer-reviewed articles, clinical trials, and review articles published between 2014 and 2024.

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Background: Pollutants including metals/metalloids, nitrate, disinfection byproducts, and volatile organic compounds contaminate federally regulated community water systems (CWS) and unregulated domestic wells across the United States. Exposures and associated health effects, particularly at levels below regulatory limits, are understudied.

Objective: We described drinking water sources and exposures for the California Teachers Study (CTS), a prospective cohort of female California teachers and administrators.

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Background: Despite the high prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF), the incidence and impact of care fragmentation (CF) following hospitalization for this condition remain unstudied.

Objectives: The present study used a national database to determine the incidence of and risk factors associated with CF. Outcomes following CF were also examined.

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Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a chronic and disabling disorder characterized by persistent dizziness, unsteadiness, and imbalance. It often arises without an identifiable cause and is exacerbated by upright posture, active or passive movement, and exposure to moving or complex visual stimuli. This complex pathophysiology and the psychological dimensions of its symptomatology pose a significant challenge to clinicians.

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Background: Industrial facilities across the United States (US) release millions of pounds of toxic chemicals, including metals. Exposure to toxic metals has been associated with adverse health outcomes, but there is limited evidence on the association between living near metal-releasing facilities and the body burden of emitted compounds.

Objective: To investigate the association between residential proximity to toxic metal-emitting industrial facilities and toenail metal concentrations and to evaluate whether associations differed by race.

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Blood coagulation is a network of biochemical reactions wherein dozens of proteins act collectively to initiate a rapid clotting response. Coagulation reactions are lipid-surface dependent, and this dependence is thought to help localize coagulation to the site of injury and enhance the association between reactants. Current mathematical models of coagulation either do not consider lipid as a variable or do not agree with experiments where lipid concentrations were varied.

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Objective: To assess perioperative and readmission outcomes of patients undergoing head and neck cancer (HNCA) surgery at safety-net hospitals (SNHs) in a modern cohort.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD), 2010 to 2019.

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Glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicide worldwide. Glyphosate biomonitoring data are limited for agricultural settings. We measured urinary glyphosate concentrations and assessed exposure determinants in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture (BEEA) study.

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Objectives: NKG2D is an activating receptor expressed by natural killer (NK) and CD8+ T cells and activation intensity varies by NKG2D expression level or nature of its ligand. An NKG2D gene polymorphism determines high (HNK1) or low (LNK1) expression. MICA is the most polymorphic NKG2D ligand and stronger effector cell activation associates with methionine rather than valine at residue 129.

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Article Synopsis
  • Video head impulse test (vHIT) artifacts are inaccuracies in data that deviate from the true vestibulo-ocular reflex response, resulting from technological, patient, or environmental factors.
  • The lack of standardized criteria for identifying these artifacts contributes to inconsistencies in research and clinical practice.
  • This review aims to explore the various challenges these artifacts present and provide a detailed overview by analyzing existing literature across multiple influencing factors.
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Nitrate levels are increasing in water resources across the United States and nitrate ingestion from drinking water has been associated with adverse health risks in epidemiologic studies at levels below the maximum contaminant level (MCL). In contrast, dietary nitrate ingestion has generally been associated with beneficial health effects. Few studies have characterized the contribution of both drinking water and dietary sources to nitrate exposure.

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Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) are neuropsychiatric conditions affecting central nervous system development, characterized by cognitive and behavioural alterations. Inflammation has been recently linked to NDs. Animal models are essential for understanding their pathophysiology and identifying therapeutic targets.

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Background: Nitrate and nitrite ingestion has been linked to kidney cancer, possibly via the endogenous formation of carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds. These exposures might also contribute to end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Objectives: We investigated associations of drinking water nitrate and dietary nitrate and nitrite intakes (total and by food type) with incident ESRD in the Agricultural Health Study.

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Background: Industrial facilities are not located uniformly across communities in the United States, but how the burden of exposure to carcinogenic air emissions may vary across population characteristics is unclear. We evaluated differences in carcinogenic industrial pollution among major sociodemographic groups in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Methods: We evaluated cross-sectional associations of population characteristics including race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and poverty at the census tract level with point-source industrial emissions of 21 known human carcinogens using regulatory data from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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  • Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are chemicals linked to immunotoxic effects that can be transferred from mothers to their unborn children, but their connection to childhood leukemia had not been thoroughly researched.
  • This study analyzed maternal PFAS levels in the blood during early pregnancy and their potential association with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children under 15 years, using data from the Finnish Maternity Cohort.
  • Results indicated that higher levels of N-methyl-perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid were associated with increased leukemia risk, especially in children diagnosed before age 5, but other studied PFAS showed inconsistent associations.
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Human exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) occurs globally through contaminated food, dust, and drinking water. Studies of PFAS and thyroid cancer have been limited. We conducted a nested case-control study of prediagnostic serum levels of 19 PFAS and papillary thyroid cancer (400 cases, 400 controls) in the Finnish Maternity Cohort (pregnancies 1986-2010; follow-up through 2016), individually matched on sample year and age.

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The structural dynamic response of hydraulic turbines needs to be continuously monitored to predict incipient failures and avoid catastrophic breakdowns. Current methods based on traditional off-board vibration sensors mounted on fixed components do not permit inferring loads induced on rotating parts with enough accuracy. Therefore, the present paper assesses the performance of fiber Bragg grating sensors to measure the vibrations induced on a rotating shaft-disc assembly partially submerged in water resembling a hydraulic turbine rotor.

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