Reducing the constraints to school access and progress: Assessing the effects of a school scholarship program in Malawi

This study utilizes a non-equivalent groups research design to compare the educational experiences and outcomes of two student groups – those who did and those who did not receive a needs-based scholarship to attend secondary school and college in the Dowa, Kasungu, and Lilongwe Districts of Malawi. We assess impacts across a range of short and medium-term outcomes, including: school attendance, withdrawal, attainment, graduation, employment status, employment quality, and post-schooling income. The scholarship substantially reduces the household cost of participation in school, and reduces the distance travelled to school. As a result, we find that scholarship recipients attain between 1 and 1.5 years of additional school and graduate at higher rates. In terms of post-schooling outcomes, we find that recipients are in higher wage-earning occupations after leaving school. Overall, results suggest that scholarships are an effective demand-side strategy for improving schooling attainment, progression, and potentially longer-term labor market outcomes.

A Maternal Wall for Refugees? Gender and Labor Market Establishment in Sweden

Using longitudinal register data, we examined gender patterns in the long-term labor market establishment of refugees (n ≈ 11,700) and Swedish-born individuals (n ≈ 109,000). The main question was whether refugee women face greater difficulties than men and if gender differences can be attributed to care responsibilities. With multinomial logistic regression, cox regressions, and individual fixed effects models, refugees were observed at age 29–30 in 1997, then followed to age 50. Results show that both among refugees and Swedish-born, establishment was a protracted and insecure process for women. Over time, women caught up with men but in terms of stable employment, gender gaps prevailed throughout the fertile period and parenthood was negatively related to long-term establishment prospects. Future research should move beyond the focus on labor market entry to capture the mechanisms behind long term insecurities. The timing of parenthood and the importance of adult education are of particular interest.

“Relaxin-dependent” way of implementing spontaneous preterm labor in multiple pregnancies: The involvement of placental relaxin 2

BACKGROUND: Despite numerous studies, the etiopathogenesis of preterm birth in multiple pregnancy remains unclear, which determines the low effectiveness of measures for the prevention of preterm birth. This fact makes it necessary to study possible ways of implementing preterm birth in multiple pregnancies and to search for new biomarkers of their pathogenetic links. Experimental and clinical studies have demonstrated the contribution of the pleiotropic hormone relaxin to the regulation of a wide range of physiological processes and its role in the implementation of the pathogenetic mechanisms of pregnancy complications, primarily premature birth. The proven autocrine / paracrine mechanism of placental relaxin action, which implements important local effects, determines the prospects for studying the contribution of its dysregulation to the implementation of spontaneous preterm labor in multiple pregnancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A morphological examination of 92 placentas from 46 deliveries of dichorionic diamniotic twins was performed: 24 of them were spontaneous premature births and 22 spontaneous term births. Histological examination of placentas along with immunohistochemical verification of relaxin 2 expression in the chorionic villus of the dichorial twins placentas were carried out. RESULTS: Histological examination of the dichorionic twins placentas revealed that those from spontaneous preterm birth were characterized by a higher frequency of chronic placental insufficiency with reduced compensatory and adaptive mechanisms and more pronounced circulatory disorders in the circulatory bed of the villous tree, when compared to placentas from spontaneous term labor. The first verification of relaxin 2 expression in the chorionic villi of the dichorionic twins placenta showed the role of the peptide in the initiation of spontaneous preterm birth. The relative area of relaxin 2 expression in spontaneous preterm labor was significantly higher (p 0.05) compared to that in spontaneous term labor. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained confirm the hypothesis put forward about the involvement of placental relaxin in the pathogenesis of spontaneous preterm labor in multiple pregnancies. The authors were the first to propose the definition of a relaxin-dependent way of implementing spontaneous preterm labor. To help define new preventive strategies, the prospects for further studies of the role and significance of relaxin in the implementation of pathogenic processes involved in spontaneous preterm birth in multiple pregnancies have been outlined.

Endocannabinoid System in Pregnancy Maintenance and Labor: A Mini-Review

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a cell-signaling system present in multiple organ systems and is an integral part of sustaining the microenvironment necessary for early pregnancy success and maintenance. It plays a significant role in embryo development, transport and implantation as well as placentation. The current theory behind the initiation of term labor is that it is a complex, multifactorial process involving sex steroid hormones, prostaglandin production and interplay at the maternal-fetal interface resulting in increased expression of receptors and gap junctions that promote uterine activation. There is increasing evidence that, in addition to early pregnancy events, the ECS plays a regulatory role in pregnancy maintenance and the timing of labor. This review presents an overview of the ECS in pregnancy that focuses on late gestation and parturition.