The Influence of Mother-Daughter Communication in Adolescence on Unintended Pregnancy in Adulthood

While a great deal of research has been devoted to examining the high unintended pregnancy rate in the United States, few studies of this outcome have used longitudinal data to examine the long-term influence of parent-child relationships during adolescence. To fill this gap, I used data from a sample of 3,517 female respondents in Wave 1 (1994 – 1995) and Wave 4 (2008 – 2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to estimate the association between their reports of satisfaction with communication with their mothers during adolescence as well as mothers’ sexual behavior attitudes and whether or not their first pregnancy during adulthood was intended, net of sociodemographic characteristics. Results from logistic regression analyses revealed no association between their perception of mother-daughter communication in adolescence and unintended first pregnancy in adulthood. Similarly, there was no association between their perception of mothers’ attitudes toward adolescent engagement in sexual activity and unintended first pregnancy. These null findings suggest that contemporaneous factors may offer better explanations for pregnancy intendedness than adolescent factors or that other aspects of parent-child relationships during adolescence may be more pertinent to subsequent sexual behavior.Bachelor of Art

Mitochondrial Control Region and microsatellite analyses on harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) unravel population differentiation in the Baltic Sea and adjacent waters

The population status of the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in the Baltic area has been a continuous matter of debate. Here we present the by far most comprehensive genetic population structure assessment to date for this region, both with regard to geographic coverage and sample size: 497 porpoise samples from North Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, Belt Sea, and Inner Baltic Sea were sequenced at the mitochondrial Control Region and 305 of these specimens were typed at 15 polymorphic microsatellite loci. Samples were stratified according to sample type (stranding vs. by-caught), sex, and season (breeding vs. non-breeding season). Our data provide ample evidence for a population split between the Skagerrak and the Belt Sea, with a transition zone in the Kattegat area. Among other measures, this was particularly visible in significant frequency shifts of the most abundant mitochondrial haplotypes. A particular haplotype almost absent in the North Sea was the most abundant in Belt Sea and Inner Baltic Sea. Microsatellites yielded a similar pattern (i.e., turnover in occurrence of clusters identified by STRUCTURE). Moreover, a highly significant association between microsatellite assignment and unlinked mitochondrial haplotypes further indicates a split between North Sea and Baltic porpoises. For the Inner Baltic Sea, we consistently recovered a small, but significant separation from the Belt Sea population. Despite recent arguments that separation should exceed a predefined threshold before populations shall be managed separately, we argue in favour of precautionary acknowledging the Inner Baltic porpoises as a separate management unit, which should receive particular attention, as it is threatened by various factors, in particular local fishery measures. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Mitochondrial DNA Regionalism and Historical Demography in the Extant Populations of Chirocephalus kerkyrensis (Branchiopoda: Anostraca)

Background: Mediterranean temporary water bodies are important reservoirs of biodiversity and host a unique assemblage of diapausing aquatic invertebrates. These environments are currently vanishing because of increasing human pressure. Chirocephalus kerkyrensis is a fairy shrimp typical of temporary water bodies in Mediterranean plain forests and has undergone a substantial decline in number of populations in recent years due to habitat loss. We assessed patterns of genetic connectivity and phylogeographic history in the seven extant populations of the species from Albania, Corfu Is. (Greece), Southern and Central Italy. Methodology/Principal Findings: We analyzed sequence variation at two mitochondrial DNA genes (Cytochrome Oxidase I and 16s rRNA) in all the known populations of C. kerkyrensis. We used multiple phylogenetic, phylogeographic and coalescence-based approaches to assess connectivity and historical demography across the whole distribution range of the species. C. kerkyrensis is genetically subdivided into three main mitochondrial lineages; two of them are geographically localized (Corfu Is. and Central Italy) and one encompasses a wide geographic area (Albania and Southern Italy). Most of the detected genetic variation (<81%) is apportioned among the aforementioned lineages. Conclusions/Significance: Multiple analyses of mismatch distributions consistently supported both past demographic and spatial expansions with the former predating the latter; demographic expansions were consistently placed during interglacial warm phases of the Pleistocene while spatial expansions were restricted to cold periods. Coalescence methods revealed a scenario of past isolation with low levels of gene flow in line with what is already known for other co-distributed fairy shrimps and suggest drift as the prevailing force in promoting local divergence. We recommend that these evolutionary trajectories should be taken in proper consideration in any effort aimed at protecting Mediterranean temporary water bodies

Neuroimaging in anxiety disorders

Neuroimaging studies have gained increasing importance in validating neurobiological network hypotheses for anxiety disorders. Functional imaging procedures and radioligand binding studies in healthy subjects and in patients with anxiety disorders provide growing evidence of the existence of a complex anxiety network, including limbic, brainstem, temporal, and prefrontal cortical regions. Obviously, “normal anxiety” does not equal “pathological anxiety” although many phenomena are evident in healthy subjects, however to a lower extent. Differential effects of distinct brain regions and lateralization phenomena in different anxiety disorders are mentioned. An overview of neuroimaging investigations in anxiety disorders is given after a brief summary of results from healthy volunteers. Concluding implications for future research are made by the authors

Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide and has a complex heritability. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancestry analysis, and 3 that were novel in a European-specific analysis. We sought to identify AF-associated genes at the GWAS loci by performing RNA-sequencing and expression quantitative trait locus analyses in 101 left atrial samples, the most relevant tissue for AF. We also performed transcriptome-wide analyses that identified 57 AF-associated genes, 42 of which overlap with GWAS loci. The identified loci implicate genes enriched within cardiac developmental, electrophysiological, contractile and structural pathways. These results extend our understanding of the biological pathways underlying AF and may facilitate the development of therapeutics for AF

7-Tesla MRI demonstrates absence of structural lesions in patients with vestibular paroxysmia

Vestibular parxoysmia is rare vestibular disorder. A neurovascular cross-compression between the vestibulochochlear nerve and an artery seems to be responsible for short attacks of vertigo in this entity. A neurovascular cross-compression can be seen in up to every fourth subject. The significance of these findings is not clear, as not all subjects suffer from symptoms. The aim of the present study was to assess possible structural lesions of the vestibulocochlear nerve by means of high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and whether high field MRI may help to differentiate symptomatic from asymptomatic patients. 7 Tesla MRI was performed in six patients with vestibular paroxysmia and confirmed neurovascular cross-compression seen on 1.5 and 3.0 MRI. No structural abnormalities were detected in any of the patients in 7 Tesla MRI. These findings imply that high field MRI does not help to differentiate between symptomatic and asymptomatic neurovascular cross-compression and that the symptoms of vestibular paroxysmia are not caused by structural nerve lesions. This supports the hypothesis that the nystagmus associated with vestibular paroxysmia has to be conceived pathophysiologically as an excitatory vestibular phenomenon, being not related to vestibular hypofunction. 7 Tesla MRI outperforms conventional MRI in image resolution and may be useful in vestibular disorders

Data from: Alien eggs in duck nests: brood parasitism or a help from Grandma?

Intraspecific brood parasitism (IBP) is a remarkable phenomenon by which parasitic females can increase their reproductive output by laying eggs in conspecific females' nests in addition to incubating eggs in their own nest. Kin selection could explain the tolerance, or even the selective advantage, of IBP, but different models of IBP based on game theory yield contradicting predictions. Our analyses of 7 polymorphic autosomal microsatellites in two eider duck colonies indicate that relatedness between host and parasitizing females is significantly higher than the background relatedness within the colony. This result is unlikely to be a by-product of relatives nesting in close vicinity, as nest distance and genetic identity are not correlated. For eider females which had been ring-marked during the decades prior to our study, our analyses indicate that (i) the average age of parasitized females is higher than the age of non-parasitized females, (ii) the percentage of nests with alien eggs increases with age of nesting females, (iii) the level of IBP increases with the host females' age, and (iv) the number of own eggs in the nest of parasitized females significantly decreases with age. IBP may allow those older females unable to produce as many eggs as they can incubate to gain indirect fitness without impairing their direct fitness: genetically-related females specialize in their energy allocation, with young females producing more eggs than they can incubate and entrusting these to their older relatives. Intraspecific brood parasitism in ducks may constitute cooperation among generations of closely-related females

Historical demography in <i>C. kerkyrensis</i>.

<p>Schematic representation of gene flow (<i>M</i>) between and within haplogroups (arrows) as inferred by the coalescence-based method in MDIV. Gene flow estimate is reported also for the Central Italian vs. Albanian/Southern Italian comparison (dashed line) even though a sister relationship between the two haplogroups was not supported in any phylogenetic or phylogeographic analysis. The bottom left insert shows temperature variation (ΔT°C) over the last 250 Kyr (redrawn from <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0030082#pone.0030082-Sime1" target="_blank">[78]</a>) with superimposed the age of demographic (D) and spatial (S) expansions for the Central Italian (CI), Greek (G) and Albanian/Southern Italian (ASI) haplogroups as inferred by the mismatch analyses detailed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0030082#pone-0030082-t005" target="_blank">Table 5</a>.</p

Sampling localities, designations and mtDNA diversity estimates (N: sample size; H: n of haplotypes; <i>h</i>: haplotype diversity; <i>π</i>: mean number of pairwise differences between all pairs of haplotypes; <i>π</i>_n: nucleotide diversity) for the seven populations of <i>C. kerkyrensis</i> included in the study.

<p>Sampling localities, designations and mtDNA diversity estimates (N: sample size; H: n of haplotypes; <i>h</i>: haplotype diversity; <i>π</i>: mean number of pairwise differences between all pairs of haplotypes; <i>π</i>_n: nucleotide diversity) for the seven populations of <i>C. kerkyrensis</i> included in the study.</p