Fathers' Multiple-Partner Fertility and Children's Educational Outcomes

Fathers' multiple-partner fertility (MPF) is associated with substantially worse educational outcomes for children. We focus on children in fathers' second families that are nuclear: households consisting of a man, a woman, their joint children, and no other children. We analyze outcomes for almost 75,000 Norwegian children, all of whom lived in nuclear families until at least age 18. Children with MPF fathers are more likely than other children from nuclear families to drop out of secondary school (24% vs. 17%) and less likely to obtain a bachelor's degree (44% vs. 51%). These gaps remain substantial—at 4 and 5 percentage points, respectively—after we control for child and parental characteristics, such as income, wealth, education, and age. Resource competition with the children in the father's first family does not explain the differences in educational outcomes. We find that the association between a father's previous childless marriage and his children's educational outcomes is similar to that between a father's MPF and his children's educational outcomes. Birth order does not explain these results. This similarity suggests that selection is the primary explanation for the association between fathers' MPF and children's educational outcomes.

An Ecological Approach to Evaluating Collaborative Practice in NSF Sponsored Partnership Projects: The SPARC Model

From co-authored publications to sponsored projects involving multiple partner institutions, collaborative practice is an expected part of work in the academy. As evaluators of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) grant awarded to four university partners in a large southern state, the authors recognized the increasing value of collaborative practice in the design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of findings in the partnership over time. When planning a program among partnering institutions, stakeholders may underestimate the need for, and value of, collaborative practice in facilitating partnership functioning. This method paper outlines an evaluative model to increase the use of collaborative practice in funded academic partnership programs. The model highlights collaborative practice across multiple stakeholder groups in the academic ecology: Sponsors of funded programs (S), Program partners and participants (P), Assessment and evaluation professionals (A), academic researchers (R), and the national and global Community (C). The SPARC model emphasizes evidence-based benefits of collaborative practice across multiple outcome domains. Tools and frameworks for evaluating collaborative practice take a view of optimizing partnership operational performance in achieving stated goals. Collaborative practice can also be an integral element of program activities that support the academic success and scholarly productivity, psychosocial adjustment, and physical and psychological well-being of stakeholders participating in the program. Given the goal of our alliance to promote diversification of the professoriate, the model highlights the use of collaborative practice in supporting stakeholders from groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields across these outcome domains. Using data from a mixed-methods program evaluation of our AGEP alliance over 4 years, the authors provide concrete examples of collaborative practice and their measurement. Results discuss important themes regarding collaborative practice that emerged in each stakeholder group. Authors operationalize the SPARC model with a checklist to assist program stakeholders in designing for and assessing collaborative practice in support of project goals in funded academic partnership projects, emphasizing the contributions of collaborative practice in promoting diversification of the professoriate.

Determinants of multiple partner fertility among males in Uganda: a cross-sectional study

Background Multiple-partner fertility is a relatively new area of study, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study focused on identifying determinants of multiple partner fertility among males in Uganda. Method The assessment was carried out using a logistic regression model and secondary data from the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. Results Among the males, 42% had children with multiple partners. Older age, being Muslim, and being divorced or separated increased the likelihood of multiple partner fertility whereas residing in the Western region, reporting an age at first sex above 19 years and being married or cohabiting reduced the likelihood. Increase in number of wives or partners and lifetime sex partners resulted into a higher likelihood of multiple partner fertility. Conclusion There is need to come up with policies and programs aimed at increasing the age at first sex so as to reduce the likelihood of multiple partner fertility among males in Uganda. Government and other stakeholders such as cultural and religious institutions should sensitize and educate the masses on the negative outcomes of having children with multiple partners and promote fidelity for those in marriage. There is also need to increase modern contraceptive use and coverage.

Trends in Years Spent as Mothers of Young Children: The Role of Completed Fertility, Birth Spacing, and Multiple Partner Fertility

The number of years women spend as mothers of young children likely has implications for women’s lifetime wages, earnings, and time use. Much prior research has pointed to widening education differences in a wide array of family patterns, but none has examined trends in the number of years women spend as mothers of young children. We use retrospective fertility data from the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation to show how changes in women’s completed fertility and birth spacing produce trends in years women spend as mothers of children under age six from 1967 to 2017. Despite remarkably parallel declines in completed fertility, growing educational differences in birth spacing produced educational divergence in years spent as mothers of young children. Particularly striking is the finding that increases in birth spacing reversed declines in years spent as mothers for women with less than a high school degree such that they spent more years with young children in the 2010s than in the late 1960s. The increasing prevalence of multiple partner fertility explains some but not all of these trends.

The Dynamic SecYEG Translocon

The spatial and temporal coordination of protein transport is an essential cornerstone of the bacterial adaptation to different environmental conditions. By adjusting the protein composition of extra-cytosolic compartments, like the inner and outer membranes or the periplasmic space, protein transport mechanisms help shaping protein homeostasis in response to various metabolic cues. The universally conserved SecYEG translocon acts at the center of bacterial protein transport and mediates the translocation of newly synthesized proteins into and across the cytoplasmic membrane. The ability of the SecYEG translocon to transport an enormous variety of different substrates is in part determined by its ability to interact with multiple targeting factors, chaperones and accessory proteins. These interactions are crucial for the assisted passage of newly synthesized proteins from the cytosol into the different bacterial compartments. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge about SecYEG-mediated protein transport, primarily in the model organism Escherichia coli, and describe the dynamic interaction of the SecYEG translocon with its multiple partner proteins. We furthermore highlight how protein transport is regulated and explore recent developments in using the SecYEG translocon as an antimicrobial target.

Relational Communication and Consensual Nonmonogamy

Consensually nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships include a variety of relational types that allow for multiple sexual or romantic partners. Although many CNM dynamics occur, the most commonly addressed by both research and popular media include swinging relationships, open relationships, and polyamorous relationships. Many people practice some form of CNM at some point in time, with some estimates suggesting approximately one in five people will be involved in some kind of CNM relational dynamic at some point in their lifetime. At the core of their relational practices, many CNM relationships center communication, openness, and honesty. Despite this, CNM relationships have received less attention from communication researchers comparative to other social science disciplines. CNM relational practices are independent of other relational identities, but may intersect with other identities such as sexual orientation or those who practice kink or bondage, domination, and sadomasochism. The interdisciplinary research literature on relational communication and CNM examines relational maintenance behaviors in CNM relationships, primarily polyamorous relationships, relational communication and jealousy in multiple partner dynamics, polyamorous identity disclosure, and intercultural communication in polyamorous communities. CNM relational communication practices emphasize relational maintenance behavior in multiple-partner dynamics and how jealousy may be communicatively managed in CNM relationships.

Limitation by a shared mutualist promotes coexistence of multiple competing partners

Although mutualisms are often studied as simple pairwise interactions, they typically involve complex networks of interacting species. How multiple mutualistic partners that provide the same service and compete for resources are maintained in mutualistic networks is an open question. We use a model bacterial community in which multiple ‘partner strains’ of Escherichia coli compete for a carbon source and exchange resources with a ‘shared mutualist’ strain of Salmonella enterica. In laboratory experiments, competing E. coli strains readily coexist in the presence of S. enterica, despite differences in their competitive abilities. We use ecological modeling to demonstrate that a shared mutualist can create temporary resource niche partitioning by limiting growth rates, even if yield is set by a resource external to a mutualism. This mechanism can extend to maintain multiple competing partner species. Our results improve our understanding of complex mutualistic communities and aid efforts to design stable microbial communities.

Big Data Driven Clinical Informatics & Surveillance (BDD_CIS) – A Multimodal Database Focused Clinical, Community, and Multi-Omics Surveillance Plan for COVID-19: A study Protocol (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) remains a serious global pandemic. Currently, all age groups are at risk for infection but the elderly and persons with underlying health conditions are at higher risk of severe complications. In the United States (US), the pandemic curve is rapidly changing with over 6,786,352 cases and 199,024 deaths reported. South Carolina (SC) as of 9/21/2020 reported 138,624 cases and 3,212 deaths across the state. OBJECTIVE The growing availability of COVID-19 data provides a basis for deploying Big Data science to leverage multitudinal and multimodal data sources for incremental learning. Doing this requires the acquisition and collation of multiple data sources at the individual and county level. METHODS The population for the comprehensive database comes from statewide COVID-19 testing surveillance data (March 2020- till present) for all SC COVID-19 patients (N≈140,000). This project will 1) connect multiple partner data sources for prediction and intelligence gathering, 2) build a REDCap database that links de-identified multitudinal and multimodal data sources useful for machine learning and deep learning algorithms to enable further studies. Additional data will include hospital based COVID-19 patient registries, Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) data, data from the office of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs (RFA), and Area Health Resource Files (AHRF). RESULTS The project was funded as of June 2020 by the National Institutes for Health. CONCLUSIONS The development of such a linked and integrated database will allow for the identification of important predictors of short- and long-term clinical outcomes for SC COVID-19 patients using data science.

The mediation effect of contraceptive use and women’s autonomy on the relationship between intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy in Ethiopia

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects one in every three women globally. Previous studies have revealed that women’s experiences of different forms of IPV are significantly associated with a higher rate of unintended pregnancy, reduced uptake of contraception, and reduced ability to make decisions regarding their fertility. The aim of this study was to investigate whether previously observed relationships between IPV and unintended pregnancy in Ethiopia are mediated by contraceptive use and women’s autonomy. Methods This study was performed using nationally representative data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). A subsample of married women of reproductive age reporting a pregnancy within the 5 years preceding 2016 and who participated in the domestic violence sub-study of the survey were included in analyses. Logistic regression models, together with the product of coefficients method, were used to estimate direct and mediated effects. Results Twenty six percent of participants reported an unintended pregnancy in the 5 years preceding the survey. Sixty-four percent reported having ever experienced IPV (a composite measure of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, and partner controlling behaviour). After adjusting for potential confounding factors, unintended pregnancy was significantly positively associated with reporting sexual IPV, emotional IPV, IPV (a composite measure of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse), and multiple partner controlling behaviour. However, IPV (as a composite of all four forms), physical IPV, and partner control (single act) were not significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. Women’s autonomy, but not contraception use, had a significant partial mediation effect in the relationships between some forms of IPV and unintended pregnancy. Women’s autonomy mediated about 35, 35, and 43% of the total effect of emotional IPV, IPV (physical, sexual, and/or emotional), and multiple partner control on unintended pregnancy respectively. Conclusion Women’s autonomy appears to play a significant role in mediating the effect of IPV on unintended pregnancy in Ethiopia. Maternal health service interventions in Ethiopia could incorporate measures to improve women’s decision-making power to reduce the negative reproductive health effects of IPV.