The social and cultural meanings of infertility for men and women in Zambia: Legacy, family and divine intervention

Despite the high prevalence of infertility within the sub-Saharan sterility belt, infertility in Zambia is understudied, particularly from a social perspective. Furthermore, few studies in sub-Saharan Africa include the infertility experiences of men. This article seeks to fill this gap by qualitatively describing the ways in which infertility in Zambia is socially and culturally loaded for both men and women. Demonstrating fertility is necessary to be considered a full adult, a real man or woman, and to leave a legacy after death. People in Zambia, including medical professionals, currently lack the necessary information and access to (or ability to provide) care to effectively resolve fertility issues. Infertile people manage their experience through a variety of social, emotional, spiritual, and medical strategies. However, no solution is considered adequate unless the intervention results in childbirth. In this way, infertility is about producing babies and the social meaning of that process, rather than the raising of children

How Has the Monetary Transmission Mechanism Evolved Over Time?

We discuss the evolution in macroeconomic thought on the monetary policy transmission mechanism and present related empirical evidence. The core channels of policy transmission – the neoclassical links between short-term policy interest rates, other asset prices such as long-term interest rates, equity prices, and the exchange rate, and the consequent effects on household and business demand – have remained steady from early policy-oriented models (like the Penn-MIT-SSRC MPS model) to modern dynamic-stochastic-general-equilibrium (DSGE) models. In contrast, non-neoclassical channels, such as credit-based channels, have remained outside the core models. In conjunction with this evolution in theory and modeling, there have been notable changes in policy behavior (with policy more focused on price stability) and in the reduced form correlations of policy interest rates with activity in the United States. Regulatory effects on credit provision have also changed significantly. As a result, we review the empirical evidence on the changes in the effect of monetary policy actions on real activity and inflation and present new evidence, using both a relatively unrestricted factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) and a DSGE model. Both approaches yield similar results: Monetary policy innovations have a more muted effect on real activity and inflation in recent decades as compared to the effects before 1980. Our analysis suggests that these shifts are accounted for by changes in policy behavior and the effect of these changes on expectations, leaving little role for changes in underlying private-sector behavior (outside shifts related to monetary policy changes).

ASSESSMENT OF DIOXIN CONTAMINATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN POPULATION IN THE VICINITY OF DIOXIN HOTSPOT IN DA NANG AIRBASE, SOUTH VIETNAM

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart

An experimental evaluation of the benefits and costs of providing fertility information to adolescents and emerging adults

STUDY QUESTION Does the provision of fertility (compared to control) information affect fertility-related knowledge, perceived threat of infertility, anxiety, physical stress and fertility plans in adolescents and emerging adults? SUMMARY ANSWER The provision of fertility information was associated with increased fertility knowledge (emerging adults) and greater infertility threat (adolescents and emerging adults). WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY According to fertility education research, adolescents and emerging adults know less than they should know about fertility topics. Fertility knowledge can be improved through the provision of information in older adults. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Experimental design. Secondary and university students completed pre-information questionnaires, were randomly assigned via computer to an experimental group, read either fertility (FertiEduc group) or healthy pregnancy information (Control group), and completed post-information questionnaires. Data were collected in group sessions via an online portal. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Eligible participants were aged 16–18 (adolescents) or 21–24 years (emerging adults), childless, not currently pregnant (for men, partner not pregnant) or trying to conceive, presumed fertile and intending to have a child in the future. Of the 255 invited, 208 (n = 93 adolescents, n = 115 emerging adults) participated. The FertiEduc group received ‘A Guide to Fertility’, four online pages of information about fertility topics (e.g. ‘When are men and women most fertile?’) and the Control group received four online pages from the National Health Service (NHS) pregnancy booklet ‘Baby Bump and Beyond’. Participants completed a questionnaire (fertility knowledge, perceived threat of infertility, anxiety, physical stress and fertility plans, moderators) prior to and after the provision of information. Mixed factorial analysis of variance was used to examine the effects of information provision and hierarchical multiple regression to assess potential moderators of knowledge. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE The FertiEduc and Control groups were equivalent on age, gender, disability, relationship status and orientation at baseline. Results showed that fertility information significantly increased fertility knowledge for emerging adults only (P < 0.001) and threat of infertility for emerging adults and adolescents (P = 0.05). The moderators were not significant. Participation in the study was associated with an increase in feelings of anxiety but a decrease in physical stress reactions. Adolescents had more optimal fertility plans compared to emerging adults due to being younger. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION This was an experimental study on a self-selected sample of men and women from selected educational institutions and only short term effects of information were studied. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Provision of fertility information can have benefits (increased fertility knowledge) but also costs (increase potential threat of infertility). Adolescents find fertility information positive but do not learn from it. Fertility education should be tailored according to age groups and created to minimise negative effects. Longitudinal examination of the effects of fertility information in multi-centre studies is warranted and should include measures of perceived threat of infertility

Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions

The exhibition of increasingly intensive and complex niche construction behaviors through time is a key feature of human evolution, culminating in the advanced capacity for ecosystem engineering exhibited by Homo sapiens. A crucial outcome of such behaviors has been the dramatic reshaping of the global biosphere, a transformation whose early origins are increasingly apparent from cumulative archaeological and paleoecological datasets. Such data suggest that, by the Late Pleistocene, humans had begun to engage in activities that have led to alterations in the distributions of a vast array of species across most, if not all, taxonomic groups. Changes to biodiversity have included extinctions, extirpations, and shifts in species composition, diversity, and community structure. We outline key examples of these changes, highlighting findings from the study of new datasets, like ancient DNA (aDNA), stable isotopes, and microfossils, as well as the application of new statistical and computational methods to datasets that have accumulated significantly in recent decades. We focus on four major phases that witnessed broad anthropogenic alterations to biodiversity—the Late Pleistocene global human expansion, the Neolithic spread of agriculture, the era of island colonization, and the emergence of early urbanized societies and commercial networks. Archaeological evidence documents millennia of anthropogenic transformations that have created novel ecosystems around the world. This record has implications for ecological and evolutionary research, conservation strategies, and the maintenance of ecosystem services, pointing to a significant need for broader cross-disciplinary engagement between archaeology and the biological and environmental sciences

Characterization of transport of neutral and ionized species in reactive HiPIMS process

International audienceThe aim of the studyis to developa software to control in real time the thin film deposition of a plasma magnetron process. The thin films will be obtained by HiPIMS plasma process (High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering)[1]. Nowadays, it is the only physical process able to ensure optimal compliance ofthe coatings on complex 3D substrates. It is also easy to implement on industrial production lines thatare already equipped by conventional magnetron sputtering systems. In order to well understand this HiPIMS process and to control it by software, we will use three plasma diagnostics:absorption spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and optical emission spectroscopy(OES). The combination of the diagnostics will allow studying the behaviourof ions and neutrals created in the plasma and their transport in the spatial post-discharge. These measurements will serve to establish abacuses for the control software. We will also associate OES data with the conformity and properties of the coatings to verify if the latter could be linked with some OES lines, whose evolutions could be the signature of the imposed modifications

L'impact des insectes parasites des graines sur les capacités de régénération naturelle des peuplements de cèdre de l'Atlas et de sapin pectiné en Languedoc-Roussillon

La régénération naturelle des peuplements forestiers est soumise à diverses contraintes environnementales, dont les insectes ravageurs des cônes et des graines. Depuis 2004, nous avons estimé l'impact de ces ravageurs dans 11 cédraies et 11 sapinières de la région Languedoc-Roussillon. Les résultats montrent que ces insectes peuvent causer des pertes importantes de graines qui participeraient sans cela à la régénération des peuplements. Les peuplements en mélange semblent plus infestés que les peuplements purs. Cette étude a aussi permis de mettre en évidence le transfert d'un ravageur du cèdre sur le sapin. Certaines mesures sanitaires et le maintien du suivi des populations de ravageurs sont préconisées pour mieux anticiper et limiter l'impact de ces insectes sur la régénération naturelle des peuplements