Family migration in a cross-national perspective: the importance of institutional and cultural context

Migration rates of dual-earner couples are lower than those of male-breadwinner couples. We revisit this issue using a cross-national comparative perspective and argue that national levels of support towards female employment and normative expectations about gender roles moderate the relationships between couple type and family migration. To test this, we use harmonised longitudinal data from four large-scale datasets from Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden covering the 1992 2011 period. Consistent with prior research, we find that male-breadwinner couples migrate more often than dual-earner couples in all countries, suggesting that traditional gender structures affecting family migration operate across very different contexts. After adjusting for theory-based confounders, we find no difference in the prevalence of family migration across couple types in Sweden, where institutions most actively promote female labour force participation and gender egalitarian practice and attitudes are dominant. We take this as evidence that institutional and cultural contexts that support female employment encourage gender equity in family migration decisions

Age and sex differences in cause-specific excess mortality and years of life lost associated with COVID-19 infection in the Swedish population

Background Estimating excess mortality and years of life lost (YLL) attributed to coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) infection provides a comprehensive picture of the mortality burden on society. We aimed to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on age- and sex-specific excess mortality and YLL in Sweden during the first 17 months of the pandemic. Methods In this population-based observational study, we calculated age- and sex-specific excess all-cause mortality and excess YLL during 2020 and the first 5 months of 2021 and cause-specific death [deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, other causes and deaths excluding COVID-19] in 2020 compared with an average baseline for 2017-19 in the whole Swedish population. Results COVID-19 deaths contributed 9.9% of total deaths (98 441 deaths, 960 305 YLL) in 2020, accounting for 75 151 YLL (7.7 YLL/death). There were 2672 (5.7%) and 1408 (3.0%) excess deaths, and 19 141 (3.8%) and 3596 (0.8%) excess YLL in men and women, respectively. Men aged 65-110 years and women aged 75-110 years were the greatest contributors. Fewer deaths and YLL from CVD, cancer and other causes were observed in 2020 compared with the baseline adjusted to the population size in 2020. Conclusions Compared with the baseline, excess mortality and YLL from all causes were experienced in Sweden during 2020, with a higher excess observed in men than in women, indicating that more men died at a younger age while more women died at older ages than expected. A notable reduction in deaths and YLL due to CVD suggests a displacement effect from CVD to COVID-19

Will systems biology offer new holistic paradigms to life sciences?

A biological system, like any complex system, blends stochastic and deterministic features, displaying properties of both. In a certain sense, this blend is exactly what we perceive as the “essence of complexity” given we tend to consider as non-complex both an ideal gas (fully stochastic and understandable at the statistical level in the thermodynamic limit of a huge number of particles) and a frictionless pendulum (fully deterministic relative to its motion). In this commentary we make the statement that systems biology will have a relevant impact on nowadays biology if (and only if) will be able to capture the essential character of this blend that in our opinion is the generation of globally ordered collective modes supported by locally stochastic atomisms

Arctic soil methane sink increases with drier conditions and higher ecosystem respiration

Arctic wetlands are known methane (CH4) emitters but recent studies suggest that the Arctic CH4 sink strength may be underestimated. Here we explore the capacity of well-drained Arctic soils to consume atmospheric CH4 using >40,000 hourly flux observations and spatially distributed flux measurements from 4 sites and 14 surface types. While consumption of atmospheric CH4 occurred at all sites at rates of 0.092 ± 0.011 mgCH4 m−2 h−1 (mean ± s.e.), CH4 uptake displayed distinct diel and seasonal patterns reflecting ecosystem respiration. Combining in situ flux data with laboratory investigations and a machine learning approach, we find biotic drivers to be highly important. Soil moisture outweighed temperature as an abiotic control and higher CH4 uptake was linked to increased availability of labile carbon. Our findings imply that soil drying and enhanced nutrient supply will promote CH4 uptake by Arctic soils, providing a negative feedback to global climate change

Variations of the Candidate SEZ6L2 Gene on Chromosome 16p11.2 in Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders and in Human Populations

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of severe childhood neurodevelopmental disorders with still unknown etiology. One of the most frequently reported associations is the presence of recurrent de novo or inherited microdeletions and microduplications on chromosome 16p11.2. The analysis of rare variations of 8 candidate genes among the 27 genes located in this region suggested SEZ6L2 as a compelling candidate. Methodology/Principal Findings: We further explored the role of SEZ6L2 variations by screening its coding part in a group of 452 individuals, including 170 patients with ASD and 282 individuals from different ethnic backgrounds of the Human Genome Diversity Panel (HGDP), complementing the previously reported screening. We detected 7 previously unidentified non-synonymous variations of SEZ6L2 in ASD patients. We also identified 6 non-synonymous variations present only in HGDP. When we merged our results with the previously published, no enrichment of non-synonymous variation in SEZ6L2 was observed in the ASD group compared with controls. Conclusions/Significance: Our results provide an extensive ascertainment of the genetic variability of SEZ6L2 in human populations and do not support a major role for SEZ6L2 sequence variations in the susceptibility to ASD

Percutaneous treatment of patients with heart diseases: selection, guidance and follow-up. A review

Aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation, patent foramen ovale, interatrial septal defect, atrial fibrillation and perivalvular leak, are now amenable to percutaneous treatment. These percutaneous procedures require the use of Transthoracic (TTE), Transesophageal (TEE) and/or Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE). This paper provides an overview of the different percutaneous interventions, trying to provide a systematic and comprehensive approach for selection, guidance and follow-up of patients undergoing these procedures, illustrating the key role of 2D echocardiography

Wnt5a Regulates Midbrain Dopaminergic Axon Growth and Guidance

During development, precise temporal and spatial gradients are responsible for guiding axons to their appropriate targets. Within the developing ventral midbrain (VM) the cues that guide dopaminergic (DA) axons to their forebrain targets remain to be fully elucidated. Wnts are morphogens that have been identified as axon guidance molecules. Several Wnts are expressed in the VM where they regulate the birth of DA neurons. Here, we describe that a precise temporo-spatial expression of Wnt5a accompanies the development of nigrostriatal projections by VM DA neurons. In mice at E11.5, Wnt5a is expressed in the VM where it was found to promote DA neurite and axonal growth in VM primary cultures. By E14.5, when DA axons are approaching their striatal target, Wnt5a causes DA neurite retraction in primary cultures. Co-culture of VM explants with Wnt5a-overexpressing cell aggregates revealed that Wnt5a is capable of repelling DA neurites. Antagonism experiments revealed that the effects of Wnt5a are mediated by the Frizzled receptors and by the small GTPase, Rac1 (a component of the non-canonical Wnt planar cell polarity pathway). Moreover, the effects were specific as they could be blocked by Wnt5a antibody, sFRPs and RYK-Fc. The importance of Wnt5a in DA axon morphogenesis was further verified in Wnt5a−/− mice, where fasciculation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) as well as the density of DA neurites in the MFB and striatal terminals were disrupted. Thus, our results identify a novel role of Wnt5a in DA axon growth and guidance

Non-Gaussian elliptic-flow fluctuations in PbPb collisions at √ s NN = 5.02 TeV

Event-by-event fluctuations in the elliptic-flow coefficient v are studied in PbPb collisions at s =5.02 TeV using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. Elliptic-flow probability distributions p(v ) for charged particles with transverse momentum 0.3<p <3.0GeV/c and pseudorapidity |η|<1.0 are determined for different collision centrality classes. The moments of the p(v ) distributions are used to calculate the v coefficients based on cumulant orders 2, 4, 6, and 8. A rank ordering of the higher-order cumulant results and nonzero standardized skewness values obtained for the p(v ) distributions indicate non-Gaussian initial-state fluctuations. Bessel–Gaussian and elliptic power fits to the flow distributions are studied to characterize the initial-state spatial anisotropy. 2 NN 2 T 2 2

Family Migration in a Cross-National Comparative Perspective: Project Aims and First Results for Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden

There has been a long-standing debate on the gendered determinants of family migration and the asymmetrical impacts that family moves exert on the lives of men and women. Generally speaking, male partners are more likely to move for their own careers and female partners are more likely to follow them. In turn, men reap the benefits of migration while women experience lower occupational returns or even losses. Although the gendering of family migration is pervasive and persists across developed societies, variations in the way its determinants and outcomes intersect with gender may vary along institutional structures. This expectation is supported by a large literature depicting cross-national differences in other realms of gender relations at the household level such as family formation or distribution of paid and unpaid work. This literature highlighted the role of national institutions filtering the ways in which couples negotiate their life courses. Despite that, cross-national variation and institutional effects received poor attention by family migration scholars, as the bulk of the associated literature has limited itself to the study of a single national context. The goal of this presentation is twofold. First, we present a new unprecedented cross-national comparative project that explores cross-national variation and examines the role of national institutions in relation to gender asymmetries in the determination and the work related outcomes of family migrations initially considering, but not restricted to, the cases of Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden. The project is groundbreaking in that it integrates a cross-national comparative design with core life course concepts and quantitative methods for the longitudinal analysis of micro-level processes using large-scale datasets. The second part of the presentation revolves around an empirical application where we investigate national level variation on the factors contributing to family migration in the four countries