Women's Assessments of Gender Equality.

Women's assessments of gender equality do not consistently match global indices of gender inequality. In surveys covering 150 countries, women in societies rated gender-unequal according to global metrics such as education, health, labor-force participation, and political representation did not consistently assess their lives as less in their control or less satisfying than men did. Women in these societies were as likely as women in index-equal societies to say they had equal rights with men.

Sequential Regulation of Maternal mRNAs through a Conserved cis-Acting Element in Their 3' UTRs.

Maternal mRNAs synthesized during oogenesis initiate the development of future generations. Some maternal mRNAs are either somatic or germline determinants and must be translationally repressed until embryogenesis. However, the translational repressors themselves are temporally regulated.

Meta-analysis of the alliance-outcome relation in couple and family therapy.

This article reviews meta-analytic evidence for the alliance-outcome relation in couple and family therapy (CFT), with implications for clinical practice. We begin by describing the unique features of CFT alliances and their measurement, followed by two case descriptions. We explain that due to the systemic context of CFT, each patient's personal alliance with the therapist affects and is affected by other family members' levels of collaboration.

Tip60 complex promotes expression of a differentiation factor to regulate germline differentiation in female Drosophila.

Germline stem cells (GSCs) self-renew and differentiate to sustain a continuous production of gametes. In the female Drosophila germ line, two differentiation factors, bag of marbles ( bam) and benign gonial cell neoplasm ( bgcn), work in concert in the stem cell daughter to promote the generation of eggs. In GSCs, bam transcription is repressed by signaling from the niche and is activated in stem cell daughters.

Fluorescence Color by Data-Driven Design of Genomic Silver Clusters.

DNA nucleobase sequence controls the size of DNA-stabilized silver clusters, leading to their well-known yet little understood sequence-tuned colors. The enormous space of possible DNA sequences for templating clusters has challenged the understanding of how sequence selects cluster properties and has limited the design of applications that employ these clusters. We investigate the genomic role of DNA sequence for fluorescent silver clusters using a data-driven approach.

Cancer Site-Specific Disparities in New York, Including the 1945-1965 Birth Cohort's Impact on Liver Cancer Patterns.

Analyses of cancer patterns by detailed racial/ethnic groups in the Northeastern United States are outdated. Using 2008-2014 death data from the populous and diverse New York State, mortality rates and regression-derived ratios with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed to compare Hispanic, non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), Asian populations, and specific Hispanic and NHB subgroups: Puerto Rican, Dominican, South American, Central American, U.S.

The evolutionary history of dogs in the Americas.

Dogs were present in the Americas before the arrival of European colonists, but the origin and fate of these precontact dogs are largely unknown. We sequenced 71 mitochondrial and 7 nuclear genomes from ancient North American and Siberian dogs from time frames spanning ~9000 years. Our analysis indicates that American dogs were not derived from North American wolves.

A Rapid, High-Throughput Validated Method for the Quantification of Atropine in Datura stramonium Seeds Using Direct Analysis in Real Time-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (DART-HRMS).

The utility of direct analysis in real time-high resolution mass spectrometry (DART-HRMS) for quantification of a variety of compounds has been explored, but the number of reports of validated methods using this technique is limited. Furthermore, despite the increasing use in crime labs of DART-HRMS for the detection and identification of drugs of abuse, very few published reports have appeared describing how the method can be exploited for the analysis of small molecules of interest within complex matrices such as plant tissues. Herein we describe the steps to be taken to establish a validated quantification method for psychoactive compounds within complex plant matrices through its application to the detection and quantification of atropine in Datura stramonium seeds.

Economic and Policy Analytic Approaches to Inform the Acceleration of HIV Prevention in the United States: Future Directions for the Field.

The fields of economic and policy analysis have long played a role in quantifying the burden of the HIV epidemic and informing how to best deploy interventions and policies aimed at maximizing HIV care and reducing transmission. Looking towards the ultimate goal of ending the AIDS epidemic, we describe five areas for further development and application towards HIV policies: (1) setting measurable objectives to create a vision and monitor progress, (2) taking a health and wellness approach to goal-setting, (3) using impact matrices to inform quantitative analysis to explicitly address health disparities, (4) conducting budget impact analyses to project annual program costs and benefits, and (5) advancing the public health systems and services research agenda.

Border collies of the genome: domestication of an autonomous retrovirus-like transposon.

Retrotransposons often spread rapidly through eukaryotic genomes until they are neutralized by host-mediated silencing mechanisms, reduced by recombination and mutation, and lost or transformed into benevolent entities. But the Ty1 retrotransposon appears to have been domesticated to guard the genome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Strategies for Improving Hepatitis C Treatment Access in the United States: State Officials Address High Drug Prices, Stigma, and Building Treatment Capacity.

Context: Curative treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) can alter the course of a devastating epidemic, but high drug prices have contributed to restrictions on HCV treatment access.

Objective: We aimed to learn how state health agencies have responded to the challenges of treatment access for HCV.

Design: Qualitative study using semistructured key informant interviews focused on aspects of HCV treatment access between June 2016 and March 2017.

The effects of protective factors and adverse childhood experiences on behavioral health services use: Findings from a population-based sample.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to later life health problems such as behavioral health (BH) service use but less is known about how to counter this association. Using a population based sample of 807 adults, we examined the effects of protective factors in countering this association. ACEs were associated with increased BH service use while protective factors were associated with decreased BH service use.

Ecosystem heterogeneity and diversity mitigate Amazon forest resilience to frequent extreme droughts.

The impact of increases in drought frequency on the Amazon forest's composition, structure and functioning remain uncertain. We used a process- and individual-based ecosystem model (ED2) to quantify the forest's vulnerability to increased drought recurrence. We generated meteorologically realistic, drier-than-observed rainfall scenarios for two Amazon forest sites, Paracou (wetter) and Tapajós (drier), to evaluate the impacts of more frequent droughts on forest biomass, structure and composition.

Bifunctional cross-linking approaches for mass spectrometry-based investigation of nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid assemblies.

With the goal of expanding the very limited toolkit of cross-linking agents available for nucleic acids and their protein complexes, we evaluated the merits of a wide range of bifunctional agents that may be capable of reacting with the functional groups characteristic of these types of biopolymers. The survey specifically focused on the ability of test reagents to produce desirable inter-molecular conjugates, which could reveal the identity of interacting components and the position of mutual contacts, while also considering a series of practical criteria for their utilization as viable nucleic acid probes. The survey employed models consisting of DNA, RNA, and corresponding protein complexes to mimic as close as possible typical applications.

Human-like hip joint loading in Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus.

Adaptations indicative of habitual bipedalism are present in the earliest recognized hominins. However, debate persists about various aspects of bipedal locomotor behavior in fossil hominins, including the nature of gait kinematics, locomotor variability across different species, and the degree to which various australopith species engaged in arboreal behaviors. In this study, we analyze variation in trabecular bone structure of the femoral head using a sample of modern humans, extant non-human hominoids, baboons, and fossil hominins attributed to Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, and the genus Homo.

Persistent organic pollutants as predictors of increased FSH:LH ratio in naturally cycling, reproductive age women.

Although several recent studies suggest endocrine disrupting compounds, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p', DDE), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), target different organs and systems in the body, their impact on female reproductive function in humans is not well characterized. We seek to determine the relationship between several known endocrine disrupting compounds and a marker of ovarian responsivity, the FSH:LH ratio (higher ratio indicates less ovarian responsivity). For this analysis, 169 naturally cycling women between 21 and 38 years of age completed interviews and had their blood drawn on day 3 of their menstrual cycle for analyses of toxicants, gonadal sex hormones (E and P), and gonadotropins (FSH and LH).

Positive-sense RNA viruses reveal the complexity and dynamics of the cellular and viral epitranscriptomes during infection.

More than 140 post-transcriptional modifications (PTMs) are known to decorate cellular RNAs, but their incidence, identity and significance in viral RNA are still largely unknown. We have developed an agnostic analytical approach to comprehensively survey PTMs on viral and cellular RNAs. Specifically, we used mass spectrometry to analyze PTMs on total RNA isolated from cells infected with Zika virus, Dengue virus, hepatitis C virus (HCV), poliovirus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

A switch in the mode of Wnt signaling orchestrates the formation of germline stem cell differentiation niche in Drosophila.

Germline stem cell (GSC) self-renewal and differentiation into gametes is regulated by both intrinsic factors in the germ line as well as extrinsic factors from the surrounding somatic niche. dWnt4, in the escort cells of the adult somatic niche promotes GSC differentiation using the canonical β-catenin-dependent transcriptional pathway to regulate escort cell survival, adhesion to the germ line and downregulation of self-renewal signaling. Here, we show that in addition to the β-catenin-dependent canonical pathway, dWnt4 also uses downstream components of the Wnt non-canonical pathway to promote escort cell function earlier in development.

Research Brief: Self-Reports of a Constellation of Persistent Antiandrogenic, Estrogenic, Physical, and Psychological Effects of Finasteride Usage Among Men.

Our research objective is to understand more, through subjective, self-reports on discussion boards/forums, persons' experiences associated with the use of drugs that alter androgen metabolism, such as finasteride. Finasteride is an orally active, specific inhibitor of 5α-reductase, which is localized to many androgen-dependent tissues. Finasteride inhibits the conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and is commonly used to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and male pattern baldness (MPB), both disorders associated with elevated DHT levels and 5α-reductase activity in the prostate and hair follicles, respectively.

Exact Renormalization Groups As a Form of Entropic Dynamics.

The Renormalization Group (RG) is a set of methods that have been instrumental in tackling problems involving an infinite number of degrees of freedom, such as, for example, in quantum field theory and critical phenomena. What all these methods have in common-which is what explains their success-is that they allow a systematic search for those degrees of freedom that happen to be relevant to the phenomena in question. In the standard approaches the RG transformations are implemented by either coarse graining or through a change of variables.

Diabetes among asian americans with BMI less than or equal to 23.

Lowering the BMI overweight cut point to 23 for Asian Americans (AA) is helpful, but careful monitoring for diabetes across the whole BMI spectrum is still required for AA; One in every 17 AA with a BMI < 23 has diabetes. Twenty one percent of all AA with diabetes has a BMI < 23.

Rationale and Descriptive Analysis of Specific Health Guidance: the Nationwide Lifestyle Intervention Program Targeting Metabolic Syndrome in Japan.

Aim: All health insurers in Japan are mandated to provide Specific Health Checkups and Specific Health Guidance (SHG) focusing on metabolic syndrome (MetS) in middle-aged adults, beginning in 2008; intensive HG for individuals who have abdominal obesity and two or more additional MetS risk factors, and motivational HG for individuals with one risk factor. The aim of this study is to describe medium-term changes in health indexes for intensive and motivational HG groups using the National Database.

Methods: We compared changes of risk factors and initiation of pharmacological therapy over 3 yr between participants (n=31,790) and nonparticipants (n=189,726) who were eligible for SHG in 2008.

Transient transcriptional silencing alters the cell cycle to promote germline stem cell differentiation in Drosophila.

Transcriptional silencing is a conserved process used by embryonic germ cells to repress somatic fate and maintain totipotency and immortality. In Drosophila, this transcriptional silencing is mediated by polar granule component (pgc). Here, we show that in the adult ovary, pgc is required for timely germline stem cell (GSC) differentiation.