Associations of urinary non-persistent endocrine disrupting chemical biomarkers with early-to-mid pregnancy plasma sex-steroid and thyroid hormones

Background/Objectives: Pregnant women are exposed to numerous endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that can affect hormonal pathways regulating pregnancy outcomes and fetal development. Thus, we evaluated overall and fetal sex-specific associations of phthalate/replacement, paraben, and phenol biomarkers with sex-steroid and thyroid hormones. Methods: Illinois women (n = 302) provided plasma for progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, free T4 (FT4), total T4 (TT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) at median 17 weeks gestation. Women also provided up-to-five first-morning urine samples monthly across pregnancy (8–40 weeks), which we pooled to measure 19 phthalate/replacement metabolites (reflecting ten parent compounds), three parabens, and six phenols. We used linear regression to evaluate overall and fetal sex-specific associations of biomarkers with hormones, as well as weighted quantile sum and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) to assess cumulative associations, non-linearities, and chemical interactions. Results: In women of relatively high socioeconomic status, several EDC biomarkers were associated with select hormones, without cumulative or non-linear associations with progesterone, FT4, or TT4. The biomarker mixture was negatively associated with estradiol (only at higher biomarker concentrations using BKMR), testosterone, and TSH, where each 10% mixture increase was associated with −5.65% (95% CI: −9.79, −1.28) lower testosterone and −0.09 μIU/mL (95% CI: −0.20, 0.00) lower TSH. Associations with progesterone, testosterone, and FT4 did not differ by fetal sex. However, in women carrying females, we identified an inverted u-shaped relationship of the mixture with estradiol. Additionally, in women carrying females, each 10% increase in the mixture was associated with 1.50% (95% CI: −0.15, 3.18) higher TT4, whereas in women carrying males, the mixture was associated with −1.77% (95% CI: −4.08, 0.58) lower TT4 and −0.18 μIU/mL (95% CI: −0.33, −0.03) lower TSH. We also identified select chemical interactions. Conclusion: Some biomarkers were associated with early-to-mid pregnancy hormones. There were some sex-specific and non-linear associations. Future studies could consider how these findings relate to pregnancy/birth outcomes

Spin density matrix elements in exclusive

We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive $$\rho ^0$$ meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160 GeV/c polarised $$\mu ^{+}$$ and $$\mu ^{-}$$ beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0 GeV/$$c^2$$$$< W<$$ 17.0 GeV/$$c^2$$, 1.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$$$< Q^2<$$ 10.0 (GeV/c)$$^2$$ and 0.01 (GeV/c)$$^2$$$$< p_{\textrm{T}}^2<$$ 0.5 (GeV/c)$$^2$$. Here, W denotes the mass of the final hadronic system, $$Q^2$$ the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ the transverse momentum of the $$\rho ^0$$ meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($$\gamma ^*_T \rightarrow V^{ }_L$$) indicate a violation of s-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive $$\rho ^0$$ production

Spin density matrix elements in exclusive ρ0\rho ^0 meson muoproduction

We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive $\rho ^0$ meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160~GeV/$c$ polarised $\mu ^{+}$ and $\mu ^{-}$ beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0~GeV/$c^2$ $< W <$ 17.0~GeV/$c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ $< Q^2 <$ 10.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ and 0.01 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ $< p_{\rm{T}}^2 <$ 0.5 (GeV/$c$)$^2$. Here, $W$ denotes the mass of the final hadronic system, $Q^2$ the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and $p_{\rm{T}}$ the transverse momentum of the $\rho ^0$ meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($\gamma^*_T \to V^{ }_L$) indicate a violation of $s$-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive $\rho ^0$ production.We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive $\rho ^0$ meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160 GeV/c polarised $\mu ^{+}$ and $\mu ^{-}$ beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0 GeV/$c^2< W<$ 17.0 GeV/$c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/c)$^2< Q^2<$ 10.0 (GeV/c)$^2$ and 0.01 (GeV/c)$^2< p_{\textrm{T}}^2<$ 0.5 (GeV/c)$^2$. Here, W denotes the mass of the final hadronic system, $Q^2$ the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and $p_{\textrm{T}}$ the transverse momentum of the $\rho ^0$ meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($\gamma ^*_T \rightarrow V^{ }_L$) indicate a violation of s-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive $\rho ^0$ production.We report on a measurement of Spin Density Matrix Elements (SDMEs) in hard exclusive $\rho ^0$ meson muoproduction at COMPASS using 160~GeV/$c$ polarised $\mu ^{+}$ and $\mu ^{-}$ beams impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. The measurement covers the kinematic range 5.0~GeV/$c^2$$< W <$ 17.0~GeV/$c^2$, 1.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$$< Q^2 <$ 10.0 (GeV/$c$)$^2$ and 0.01 (GeV/$c$)$^2$$< p_{\rm{T}}^2 <$ 0.5 (GeV/$c$)$^2$. Here, $W$ denotes the mass of the final hadronic system, $Q^2$ the virtuality of the exchanged photon, and $p_{\rm{T}}$ the transverse momentum of the $\rho ^0$ meson with respect to the virtual-photon direction. The measured non-zero SDMEs for the transitions of transversely polarised virtual photons to longitudinally polarised vector mesons ($\gamma^*_T \to V^{ }_L$) indicate a violation of $s$-channel helicity conservation. Additionally, we observe a dominant contribution of natural-parity-exchange transitions and a very small contribution of unnatural-parity-exchange transitions, which is compatible with zero within experimental uncertainties. The results provide important input for modelling Generalised Parton Distributions (GPDs). In particular, they may allow one to evaluate in a model-dependent way the role of parton helicity-flip GPDs in exclusive $\rho ^0$ production