Identification of shared bacterial strains in the vaginal microbiota of reproductive-age mothers and daughters using genome-resolved metagenomics

It has been suggested that the human microbiome might be vertically transmitted from mother to offspring and that early colonizers may play a critical role in development of the immune system. Studies have shown limited support for the vertical transmission of the intestinal microbiota but the derivation of the vaginal microbiota remains largely unknown. Although the vaginal microbiota of children and reproductive age cis women differ in composition, the vaginal microbiota could be vertically transmitted. To determine whether there was any support for this hypothesis, we examined the vaginal microbiota of daughter-mother pairs from the Baltimore metropolitan area (ages 14-27, 32-51; n=39). We assessed whether the daughter’s microbiota was similar in composition to their mother’s using metataxonomics. Permutation tests revealed that while some pairs did have similar vaginal microbiota, the degree of similarity did not exceed that expected by chance. Genome-resolved metagenomics was used to identify shared bacterial strains in a subset of the families (n=22). We found a small number of bacterial strains that were shared between mother-daughter pairs but identified more shared strains between individuals from different families, indicating that vaginal bacteria may display biogeographic patterns. Earlier-in-life studies are needed to demonstrate vertical transmission of the vaginal microbiota.

Isolated Voices in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

People living all over the world belong to different religions, follow different cultures and speak different languages. If people of one nation go to another nation for their livelihood or education, they have to adapt themselves to the changing situations and places lest they should experience untold sufferings. Life throws all a lot of challenges, both simple and complicated, and it is up to all to rise and perform, take decisions that can be sometimes satisfying, and sometimes disturbing, and walk through it as if none were affected by it. It is not an easy thing to do. It is never easy to answer his heart as the questions surface and resurfaces time and again. Life is not a bed of roses to live easily. Lahiri is an Indian by birth but she has America as her permanent dwelling place. Hence, she has faced a lot of problems as an immigrant which she tries to show in her work. Hers are perfectly placed words lining themselves into elegant sentences whose subject matter: family, mothers and daughters, assimilation, alcoholism, children, marital love and touch us all.

Prevalence and associates of depression among rural and urban Rwandan mothers and their daughters 26 years after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi

Background: Mental disorders continue to be a challenge for Rwandan society, especially for women after the genocide against the Tutsi. The risk of inheritance of mental disorders is eminent. We therefore conducted a study on the prevalence of depression among grandmothers and their daughters using quantitative data. This paper explains in detail why and how the dataset was created, and it describes the dataset itself. This will allow readers to easily access and use the data. Methods: A sample of 309 dyads of mothers and daughters was recruited. Data were collected using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Life Events Questionnaire and the Social Demographics Questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, logistic regression, and one-way ANOVA.

Characteristics of kappa-casein gene polymorphism in cows of Swiss breed and their productive qualities at a large dairy

Kappa-casein is a fraction of the main milk protein, which determines the technological properties of milk and the quality of dairy products, especially cheese and fermented milk products. The study tested the distribution of kappa-casein gene genotype polymorphism (CSN3) in mothers and daughters of the Swiss breed cows, taking into account their milk productivity qualities. The study was performed on 111 cows of the Swiss breed on a large dairy. The observation group I included 51 cow-mothers of the Swiss breed; group II – 60 cow-daughters of the Swiss breed. In a study of the polymorphism of the kappa-casein gene in cow-mothers and cow-daughters of the Swiss breed, the dominance of allele B (0.73 and 0.70) was found, which was registered more than two times more often than allele A. The incidence of genotypes AA – AB – BB in cow-mothers of the Swiss breed was as follows: 5.9% – 43.1% – 51.0% with indicators of observed heterozygosity 0.43 and expected heterozygosity 0.40. In cow-daughters of the Swiss breed the frequency of the BB genotype was the same, but, genotype АА was registered almost twice as often, with lower indicators of observed heterozygosity and smaller increases of indicators of expected heterozygosity than in cow-mothers. Cow-mothers of the Swiss breed with the AA genotype, in comparison with the AB genotypes, had higher milk yields during lactation (by 43%), fat production (by 86.9%), ratio of fat to protein (by 40.5%). Also note, the cow-mothers of the Swiss breed with the AA genotype, in comparison with the BB genotypes, had reliably high rates of fat to protein (by 35.8%) and only a trend to higher fat production; fat and protein. The production of fat in dairy cows-daughters with the BB genotype was higher than with the AA genotype, but only at the level of tendency. The correlation analysis showed that the AA genotype of the kappa-casein gene in cow-mothers of the Swiss breed was associated with the duration of lactation, indicators of milk yield during lactation, fat production, fat content and protein in milk with registration of reliable and positive coefficients of correlation. The genotypes in cow-daughters did not have a reliable correlation with the duration of lactation and fat or protein content in milk. The results of the kappa-casein gene polymorphism study indicated that the AA genotype of cow-mothers of the Swiss breed was associated with higher productive milk qualities which should be taken into account when forming a highly productive herd of cattle of the Swiss breed under intensiveoperative technology at a large-scale dairy unit.

“Patchy Patriarchy” and the Shifting Fortunes of the CCP's Promise of Gender Equality since 1921

The CCP's commitment to gender equality since 1921 has produced vast gains in employment and education for countless women while overlooking established gender hierarchies in family life. Long-term research in Beijing reveals that crossing class, sectoral and generational differences, there is an apparent paradox between women's increasing access to education and employment and their abiding attachment to ideas and practices associated with their roles as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. A reconfigured “patchy” form of patriarchy is sustained by a dominant discourse of gender difference that naturalizes women's association with the domestic sphere. Unprecedented engagements with international feminism after 1995 introduced new approaches to gender equality. Recently, young feminists from diverse backgrounds have launched public protests targeting expectations of women in marriage and family life, marking a contestation of previous articulations of gender equality. Online platforms are flooded with exchanges about women's empowerment in a market environment that grants them considerable leverage to manage their marital and domestic relationships. The focus of this new generation of feminists on social reproduction signifies a radical departure from the classical Marxist principles underpinning earlier approaches to women's emancipation. Nevertheless, a “patchy patriarchy” continues to characterize widely held gender assumptions and expectations, spanning class and sectoral difference.

Growing Up as a Girl in Late Socialist Poland: The Personal, the Policial and Class in Feminist Quasi-Autobiographical Novels by Izabela Filipiak and Joanna Bator

The article examines how representations of late socialism, seen through the eyes of adolescent girls, function in ‘quasi-autobiographical novels’ by Izabela Filipiak (Absolutna amnezja [Absolutne Amnesia], 1995) and Joanna Bator (Piaskowa Góra [The Sandy Hill], 2008). The authors, born in the 1960s and self-identified feminists, became voices of the women’s movement in post-1989 Poland. From their novels, the picture of late socialism emerges as either nightmarish (Filipiak) or grotesque (Bator). Examining family relations, but also intimate relations (understood as political), the author argues that the novels’ focus on gender/sexual differences is consistent with the dominant message of the women’s movement in Poland, which after 1989 lost sight of class differences, contributing to their naturalization and taming. Through the aforementioned examples, the author demonstrates that late socialism is an essential component of the founding story of contemporary feminism in Poland, and that the topos of the conflict between mothers and daughters is a useful tool of its anti-communist identity politics. Discussing the issue of the literary genre, the article proves that the choice of a quasi-autobiographical novel, based on the Bildungsroman scheme, harmonizes with the biographical, artistic and political settlements of the ‘breakthrough generation’ with late socialism and transformation.

Forgotten Stories of Women: Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma of Holodomor and Holocaust Survivors’ Offspring

The aims of the study were to examine intergenerational effects of two cultural contexts of massive genocide: the Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine, and the Holocaust 1939-1944 on the second and third generations of women in Ukraine and Israel. Forty women participants were recruited for four focus groups, two in each country, comprised of 10 participants each, using a snowball method in both countries. The second-generation groups were named as “the mothers’ group”, and the third-generation group (comprised of daughters of the mothers’ groups) were named as “the daughters’ group”. Inclusion criteria for sampling were: (a) being female above 18 years old, and (b) having family experience of the Famine 1932-1933 / Holocaust during 1939-1944. The groups were moderated by two experienced psychologists in each of the countries. The participants were presented with seven semi-structured questions and were asked to share their family narratives and experiences of the genocide. The study applied inductive thematic analyses that progressed from description to interpretation, for key themes that emerged during the groups’ sessions. The results of the study showed the centrality of five emerging themes in both mothers’ and daughters’ narratives, including: “emotions and feelings of experiencing genocide, “attitudes toward food and starvation”, “sense of losses and death”, “transgenerational transmission of trauma in family narratives”, and “ethnic identity”. The cross-cultural perspective of the current research shed light on the similarities and differences between the traumatic narratives constructed by the offspring of the second and the third generations in the two contexts of Ukraine and Israel. The Ukrainian women attributed greater importance of commemoration of Holodomor victims as part of an effective coping strategy with trauma, while the Israeli women put more emphasis on the attitude of asceticism that was inherited from the Holocaust survivors. The cross-cultural clinical and educational implications are discussed.