Male fertility attitudes: a neglected dimension in Nigerian fertility research

A sample of 202 male Nigerians enrolled in colleges and graduate schools in the state of Kansas were surveyed to determine their perceptions of population problems in Nigeria; attitudes toward family planning, divorce, and male children; and attitudes toward family size. A major limitation of Nigerian-based fertility research has been the neglect of the role of men in couples' reproductive behavior. The majority of Nigerian students surveyed in this study did not think overpopulation is an impending crisis in Nigeria: 40% thought there are just enough people and 13% indicated there are not enough people. 53% supported the concept of a government population policy, but 67% felt the government should not interfere with family size decisions. Although 84% endorsed the idea that family planning services and information should be available, 69% felt women should not practice family planning without the consent of their husbands. 43% believed a man should divorce his wife if the woman is infertile, unable to produce a male child, or unable to bear the number of children demanded by her husband; in addition, 35% indicated a man should marry a second wife or continue to have children if the couple has 5 daughters and no son. In terms of the value of children, 62% stated that children are wealth or better than wealth, whereas 38% claimed that children use up wealth. Duration of stay in the US was inversely correlated with the number of children considered too many, and the number of male children already born was an important determinant of future family size expectations. In general, it appears that level of education and exposure to US standards do not have a major impact on fertility values among Nigerians, particularly the desire for male children. Educated Nigerian men are an important target for population education, however, because they dominate and control many of the structural, behavioral, and cultural dimensions of fertility behavior.     

Infidelity,jealousy, and wife abuse among Tsimane forager–farmers: testing evolutionary hypotheses of marital conflict

The role of men's jealousy over a wife's infidelity in precipitating marital conflict and wife abuse is well documented. The role of women's jealousy over a husband's infidelity has received little attention, which is puzzling given high potential costs to women of withdrawal of paternal investment. We address this gap by investigating marital conflict and wife abuse among Tsimane forager–farmers of Bolivia. We test predictions derived from male jealousy and paternal disinvestment hypotheses, which consider threats and consequences of infidelity by women (male jealousy hypothesis) and men (paternal disinvestment hypothesis). The paternal disinvestment hypothesis proposes that wife abuse is employed by husbands to limit wives' mate retention effort and maintain men's opportunities to pursue extrapair sexual relationships. Interviews were conducted among husbands and wives in the same marriages using a combination of open-ended and structured items. Spouses agree that the most frequently reported type of marital argument is women's jealousy over a husband's infidelity (N=266 arguments). Roughly 60% of abusive events occurred during arguments over men's diversion of household resources (N=124 abusive events). In multivariate analyses, likelihood of wife abuse is greater in marriages where husbands have affairs, where wives are younger, and where spouses spend more time apart (N=60 husbands, 71 wives). While we find strong support for both male jealousy and paternal disinvestment hypotheses, it is men's infidelity, not women's, that precipitates most instances of marital conflict and wife abuse. We conclude that men's aggression towards their wives facilitates men's diversion of family resources for their selfish interests.     

Laboratory information management system for membrane protein structure initiative – from gene to crystal

Membrane Protein Structure Initiative (MPSI) exploits laboratory competencies to work collaboratively and distribute work among the different sites. This is possible as protein structure determination requires a series of steps, starting with target selection, through cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and finally structure determination. Distributed sites create a unique set of challenges for integrating and passing on information on the progress of targets. This role is played by the Protein Information Management System (PIMS), which is a laboratory information management system (LIMS), serving as a hub for MPSI, allowing collaborative structural proteomics to be carried out in a distributed fashion. It holds key information on the progress of cloning, expression, purification and crystallization of proteins. PIMS is employed to track the status of protein targets and to manage constructs, primers, experiments, protocols, sample locations and their detailed histories: thus playing a key role in MPSI data exchange. It also serves as the centre of a federation of interoperable information resources such as local laboratory information systems and international archival resources, like PDB or NCBI. During the challenging task of PIMS integration, within the MPSI, we discovered a number of prerequisites for successful PIMS integration. In this article we share our experiences and provide invaluable insights into the process of LIMS adaptation. This information should be of interest to partners who are thinking about using LIMS as a data centre for their collaborative efforts.     

Laboratory information management system for membrane protein structure initiative--from gene to crystal

Membrane Protein Structure Initiative (MPSI) exploits laboratory competencies to work collaboratively and distribute work among the different sites. This is possible as protein structure determination requires a series of steps, starting with target selection, through cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and finally structure determination. Distributed sites create a unique set of challenges for integrating and passing on information on the progress of targets. This role is played by the Protein Information Management System (PIMS), which is a laboratory information management system (LIMS), serving as a hub for MPSI, allowing collaborative structural proteomics to be carried out in a distributed fashion. It holds key information on the progress of cloning, expression, purification and crystallization of proteins. PIMS is employed to track the status of protein targets and to manage constructs, primers, experiments, protocols, sample locations and their detailed histories: thus playing a key role in MPSI data exchange. It also serves as the centre of a federation of interoperable information resources such as local laboratory information systems and international archival resources, like PDB or NCBI. During the challenging task of PIMS integration, within the MPSI, we discovered a number of prerequisites for successful PIMS integration. In this article we share our experiences and provide invaluable insights into the process of LIMS adaptation. This information should be of interest to partners who are thinking about using LIMS as a data centre for their collaborative efforts.     

When to have another baby: A dynamic model of reproductive decision-making and evidence from Gabbra pastoralists

Maximizing reproductive success involves having as many children as possible that can themselves reproduce successfully. Thus, when Gabbra parents decide to have another baby, they must trade off the probability that they will be able to afford to raise the child and marry it off successfully when it reaches maturity against the risk that feeding and raising that child would diminish the family herd, harming the marriage prospects of other children and possibly even leading to household destitution. Here I use a dynamic, state-dependent optimality model to analyze this trade-off. The decision to have another baby depends on household wealth and the number of children they already have. Parents should not necessarily reproduce at the maximum rate to maximize reproductive success, and the costs of marrying off a child have a large impact on the optimal family size. In the Gabbra, the cost of marrying off boys greatly exceeds the cost of marrying off girls. An analysis of demographic data from Gabbra households with a living husband and a first wife that had reached menopause show that probability of remarriage is strongly dependent on the number of children the first wife had. Number of sons has a much greater influence than number of daughters on the probability of a second marriage, as predicted by the model. Men are attempting to create the optimal family.     

A Cinderella effect in the childcare assistance provided by European grandparents

Survey data from 36,771 European grandparents were analyzed with respect to childcare assistance that interviewees provided to their birth children versus stepchildren. Interviewees with current partners provided far more such assistance to adult children who were the progeny of both partners than to those who were stepchildren of either one's self or one's partner, but both husband and wife helped the wife's children from prior unions more than they helped the husband's children, supporting the interpretation of stepfathers' involvement as primarily an investment in the new partnership (“mating effort”) rather than in the grandchildren. Interviewees resided farther away from their adult stepchildren than from their birth children, on average, but discriminative care did not depend merely on residential proximity, being substantial regardless of whether proximity was statistically controlled. Grandmothers without current partners exhibited the greatest discrimination, with stepchild: birth child Odds Ratios of 0.10 or less in various analyses, whereas grandfathers without partners exhibited no significant discrimination. Interviewees of both sexes listed far more stepchildren, proportionately, if they had a current partner than if they were either widowed or divorced, however, which suggests that single respondents may have omitted former stepchildren with whom they had ceased to interact from their list of children, and hence that the degree to which single grandparents divest from them may be even larger than estimated.     

Neuropathology in mouse models of mucopolysaccharidosis type I, IIIA and IIIB

Mucopolysaccharide diseases (MPS) are caused by deficiency of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) degrading enzymes, leading to GAG accumulation. Neurodegenerative MPS diseases exhibit cognitive decline, behavioural problems and shortened lifespan. We have characterised neuropathological changes in mouse models of MPSI, IIIA and IIIB to provide a better understanding of these events.Wild-type (WT), MPSI, IIIA and IIIB mouse brains were analysed at 4 and 9 months of age. Quantitative immunohistochemistry showed significantly increased lysosomal compartment, GM2 ganglioside storage, neuroinflammation, decreased and mislocalised synaptic vesicle associated membrane protein, (VAMP2), and decreased post-synaptic protein, Homer-1, in layers II/III-VI of the primary motor, somatosensory and parietal cortex. Total heparan sulphate (HS), was significantly elevated, and abnormally N-, 6-O and 2-O sulphated compared to WT, potentially altering HS-dependent cellular functions. Neuroinflammation was confirmed by significantly increased MCP-1, MIP-1α, IL-1α, using cytometric bead arrays. An overall genotype effect was seen in all parameters tested except for synaptophysin staining, neuronal cell number and cortical thickness which were not significantly different from WT. MPSIIIA and IIIB showed significantly more pronounced pathology than MPSI in lysosomal storage, astrocytosis, microgliosis and the percentage of 2-O sulphation of HS. We also observed significant time progression of all genotypes from 4-9 months in lysosomal storage, astrocytosis, microgliosis and synaptic disorganisation but not GM2 gangliosidosis. Individual genotype*time differences were disparate, with significant progression from 4 to 9 months only seen for MPSIIIB with lysosomal storage, MPSI with astrocytocis and MPSIIIA with microgliosis as well as neuronal loss. Transmission electron microscopy of MPS brains revealed dystrophic axons, axonal storage, and extensive lipid and lysosomal storage. These data lend novel insight to MPS neuropathology, suggesting that MPSIIIA and IIIB have more pronounced neuropathology than MPSI, yet all are still progressive, at least in some aspects of neuropathology, from 4-9 months.     

Darwin was right: inbreeding depression on male fertility in the Darwin family

Charles Darwin, who was married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, was the first experimentalist to demonstrate the adverse effects of inbreeding. He documented the deleterious consequences of self‐fertilization on progeny in numerous plant species, and this research led him to suspect that the health problems of his 10 children, who were very often ill, might have been a consequence of his marriage to his first cousin. Because Darwin's concerns regarding the consequences of cousin marriage on his children even nowadays are considered controversial, we analyzed the potential effects of inbreeding on fertility in 30 marriages of the Darwin–Wedgwood dynasty, including the marriages of Darwin's children, which correspond to the offspring of four cousin marriages and three marriages between unrelated individuals. Analysis of the number of children per woman through zero‐inflated regression models showed a significantly adverse effect of the husband inbreeding coefficient on family size. Furthermore, a statistically significant adverse effect of the husband inbreeding coefficient on reproductive period duration was also detected. To our knowledge, this is the first time that inbreeding depression on male fertility has been detected in humans. Because Darwin's sons had fewer children in comparison to non‐inbred men of the dynasty, our findings give empirical support to Darwin's concerns on the consequences of consanguineous marriage in his own progeny. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 114 , 474–483.     

Successful maintenance of a stingless bee population despite a severe genetic bottleneck

Stingless bees play an important ecological role as pollinators of many wild plant species in the tropics and have significant potential for the pollination of agricultural crops. Nevertheless, conservation efforts as well as commercial breeding programmes require better guidelines on the amount of genetic variation that is needed to maintain viable populations. In this context, we carried out a long-term genetic study on the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris to evaluate the population viability consequences of prolonged breeding from a small number of founder colonies. In particular, it was artificially imposed a genetic bottleneck by setting up a population starting from only two founder colonies, and continued breeding from it for a period of over 10?years in a location outside its natural area of occurrence. We show that despite a great reduction in the number of alleles present at both neutral microsatellite loci and the sex-determining locus relative to its natural source population, and an increased frequency in the production of sterile diploid males, the genetically impoverished population could be successfully bred and maintained for at least 10?years. This shows that in stingless bees, breeding from a small stock of colonies may have less severe consequences than previously suspected. In addition, we provide a simulation model to determine the number of colonies that are needed to maintain a certain number of sex alleles in a population, thereby providing useful guidelines for stingless bee breeding and conservation efforts.     

Introducing a second wife. A matrimonial aid in cases of a childless marriage

On the basis of the corpus of 2.727 answers to the questions contained in the archives of the Ethnological Atlas, Department of Ethnology, University of Zagreb, the author has tried to provide an answer to the question concerning reasons for introducing a second wife while the first wife is still alive. Attentive comparative analysis of the entire material (analized according to religion) leads to the incontestable conclusion that the first and basic consideration is the desire for children or the desire for male children. This makes the position of the infertile women tragic. The basic life credo of patriarchal societies is the production of children. Often a woman can establish her position in society only after she has borne a male child when she may have a place in the husband's family on the basis of blood ties. The author comes to the conclusion that in this respect, even among the Muslims, where more than one wife was allowed, it is less a matter of a second wife, or bigamy, in the true sense but of introducing a new wife as a matrimonial aid primarily in cases of a childless marriage.     

Whom do dying patients tell?

Eighty married patients dying of cancer were assessed for their overt awareness of their condition. Of the 62 who discussed the possibility of dying, 22 had spoken of this to hospital staff, 43 to their husband or wife, and 53 to the interviewer. Those more certain of dying were more likely to speak about it. Patients previously considered "nervous" people more often showed their awareness, but current anxiety had no consistent effect. More overt sharing of awareness tended to happen in marriages considered average or poor by the spouse than in some closer marital partnerships. The patients'' communication of awareness to wife or husband was consistently better when the spouse favoured telling the patient. Patients also tended to disclose their awareness of dying more frequently to those staff prepared to discuss the matter. The findings have implications for the care of the dying.     

PERSPECTIVE: THE THEORIES OF FISHER AND WRIGHT IN THE CONTEXT OF METAPOPULATIONS: WHEN NATURE DOES MANY SMALL EXPERIMENTS

We critically review the two major theories of adaptive evolution developed early in this century, Wright's shifting balance theory and Fisher's large population size theory, in light of novel findings from field observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical research conducted over the past 15 years. Ecological studies of metapopulations have established that the processes of local extinction and colonization of demes are relatively common in natural populations of many species and theoretical population genetic models have shown that these ecological processes have genetic consequences within and among local demes. Within demes, random genetic drift converts nonadditive genetic variance into additive genetic variance, increasing, rather than limiting, the potential for adaptation to local environments. For this reason, the genetic differences that arise by drift among demes, can be augmented by local selection. The resulting adaptive differences in gene combinations potentially contribute to the genetic origin of new species. These and other recent findings were not discussed by either Wright or Fisher. For example, although Wright emphasized epistatic genetic variance, he did not discuss the conversion process. Similarly, Fisher did not discuss how the average additive effect of a gene varies among demes across a metapopulation whenever there is epistasis. We discuss the implications of such recent findings for the Wright-Fisher controversy and identify some critical open questions that require additional empirical and theoretical study.     

Clinical, genetic and regulatory consequences of exposure to mutagens.

Not a single agent is known to cause an increase of genetic disorders in humans. Even studies on large numbers of children born to parents after exposure to ionizing radiation or DNA alkylating agents failed to detect significant genetic consequences. This is in contrast to effects observed in human somatic cells or germ cells, and to various investigations with laboratory animals. A definite explanation of these discrepancies does not exist. Nevertheless, on the basis of the currently available human data it cannot be justified to advise a previously exposed person against having children, if this individual is otherwise healthy. There are obvious incongruencies between the potency of an agent to cause mutations at all, and to induce genetic effects in the offspring. It should therefore be emphasized that a regulatory classification of agents according to a potential genetic hazard in man must not solely be based on in vitro mutagenicity data.     

Understanding the Social Meaning of Infertility and Childbearing: A Qualitative Study of the Perception of Childbearing and Childlessness in Northern Ghana

Background

Infertility is a major medical condition that affects many married couples in sub-Saharan African and as such associated with several social meanings. This study therefore explored community''s perception of childbearing and childlessness in Northern Ghana using the Upper West Region as a case study.

Methods

The study was exploratory and qualitative using in-depth and key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Fifteen marriage unions with infertility (childless), forty-five couples with children, and eight key informants were purposively sampled and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guides. Three focus group discussions were also carried out, one for childless women, one for women with children and one with men with children. The data collected were transcribed, coded, arranged, and analyzed for categories and themes and finally triangulated.

Results

The study revealed that infertility was caused by both social and biological factors. Socially couples could become infertile through supernatural causes such as bewitchment, and disobediences of social norms. Abortion, masturbation and use of contraceptives were also identified as causes of infertility. Most childless couples seek treatment from spiritualist, traditional healers and hospital. These sources of treatment are used simultaneously.

Conclusion

Childbearing is highly valued in the community and Childlessness is highly engendered, and stigmatised in this community with manifold social consequences. In such a community therefore, the concept of reproductive choice must encompass policies that make it possible for couples to aspire to have the number of children they wish.     

野生杏和栽培杏的遗传多样性和遗传结构分析

利用SSR分子标记结合荧光毛细管电泳检测技术,研究了野生杏和栽培杏的遗传多样性和遗传结构,结果显示:27个SSR位点,平均每个位点检测到17.82个等位基因(Na)和7.44个有效等位基因(Ne),平均Shannon's信息指数(I)为2.23,平均期望杂合度(He)和观察杂合度(Ho)分别为0.70和0.52。基于SSR位点,群体水平上平均等位基因数、有效等位基因数、期望杂合度、观察杂合度和Shannon's信息指数分别为6.59、4.15、0.70、0.53和1.50,说明我国杏种质资源遗传多样性丰富,其中野生杏资源遗传多样性明显高于栽培杏资源,野生杏中西伯利亚杏种质遗传多样性最高且具有较多的特异等位基因,而栽培杏中仁用杏遗传多样性最低,特有等位基因较少。聚类分析将供试159份种质分为4组。群体遗传结构分析将159份种质划分为5个类群,分类情况与传统形态指标划分基本一致。通过本研究可知,我国杏资源遗传多样性丰富,遗传结构较为复杂;西伯利亚杏与栽培杏亲缘关系较远;野生普通杏与栽培杏具有类似的遗传结构,推测野生普通杏为栽培杏原始种;仁用杏遗传多样性较低,遗传背景狭窄。本研究结果可为杏资源新品种选育及持续利用提供重要的理论依据。     

Characteristics of Malignant Tumors in 230 Husband–Wife Pairs

The aim of this study is to obtain a reference point for early detection of tumors in individuals whose spouses were diagnosed with malignant tumors. Data from 230 husband and wife pairs with malignant tumors were collected and analyzed from the family history records of 15,000 people who came to the Department of Cancer Prevention, Cancer Institute/Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences for cancer screening between January 2009 and May 2012. The median diagnosis age was 67 years for husbands and 65 years for wives. A total of 214 cases (46.5 %) had digestive system malignancies. Respiratory system cancers were diagnosed in 64 husbands, of whom 20 (31.3 %) had spouses also with respiratory system cancer. Lung cancer ranked first for the females. The total number of lung cancer and commonly seen female-specific cancers (breast, ovarian, uterine, and cervical) was 127 (55.2 %). The difference in age at diagnosis between spouses was less than 10 years in 134 couples (58.3 %), while 77 (33.5 %) couples had an age difference less than 5 years. A family history of malignant tumors in first-degree relatives was documented in 48.3 % of the husbands and 48.7 % of the wives. The occurrence of cancer in both spouses of the couples studied resulted from an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Nonhereditary factors such as diet, smoking, passive smoking, and air pollution also contributed to the development of cancers. It is recommended that when husband is diagnosed with cancer, the wife should be screened focusing on lung, breast, and gynecological cancers. If the wife was diagnosed with malignant disease, then screening for lung and digestive system cancers should be emphasized in the husband.     

Psychiatric Aspects of Artificial Insemination (Donor)

Artificial insemination (donor) [A.I.D.] in humans is a medical procedure that has been carried out for roughly 50 years. Its legal status has not yet been established; its moral implications are still hotly contested, and its psychological and psychiatric implications are only now coming under scientific scrutiny.The use of this procedure in couples who are psychologically unsuited for it can have unfortunate consequences. The obstetrician should seek the assistance of a dynamically oriented psychiatrist in screening couples who ask for artificial insemination (donor).Parenthood, in line with psychoanalytic ego psychology, is seen as a phase of ego development. The potential for mothering and fathering children is a later stage in growth than the capacity to conceive and sire them. It is the psychiatrist''s role to assess the couple''s motivation for A.I.D. in the light of the extent to which they have achieved this degree of ego development.     

Internet access

A 65-year-old man undergoes a routine checkup before retiring. His wife has urged him to have his prostate examined, because she has read about testing for prostate cancer and a friend has just died of this disease. During the rectal examination, the man''s physician discovers some firmness in the right lobe of the prostate gland. The patient has had no urinary symptoms and is in excellent general health. Sexual function is normal. There is no history of prostate cancer; his father died of a stroke at age 86 years. Testing shows that the patient''s prostate-specific antigen level is 9.3 ng/mL, and he is referred to a urologist. Transrectal ultrasound-guided needle biopsy reveals adenocarcinoma with a Gleason score of 7 (intermediate grade). At a follow-up meeting with his physician, the patient says, "I have been doing some research, and it appears that I should have treatment. However, what is less clear to me is what form of therapy is best--surgery or radiation treatment. Please tell me what you can about the state of the art with respect to surgery."     

When dispersal fails: unexpected genetic separation in Gibraltar macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), now restricted in the wild to a few isolated forested areas of Morocco and Algeria, are present in a free‐ranging colony on Gibraltar. For many decades, the Gibraltar colony was exposed to multiple bottlenecks due to highly nonrandom removal of animals, followed by repeated introductions of animals from North Africa. Moreover, because of complete isolation, Gibraltar's several social groups of macaques provide an ideal system to study the genetic consequences of dispersal in cercopithecines in situ. Predictions of genetic consequences due to male‐biased dispersal in cercopithecines will be different for autosomal and maternally inherited genetic markers, such as the control region of the mitochondrial DNA. We used a panel of 14 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci and part of the hypervariable region I of the mitochondrial control region to estimate genetic structure between five social groups in Gibraltar. Surprisingly, for autosomal markers, both classical summary statistics and an individual‐based method using a Bayesian framework detected significant genetic structure between social groups in Gibraltar, despite much closer proximity than wild Algerian and Moroccan populations. Mitochondrial data support this finding, as a very substantial portion of the total genetic variation (70.2%) was found between social groups. Using two Bayesian approaches, we likewise identified not only a small number of male first‐generation immigrants (albeit less than expected for cercopithecines) but also unexpectedly a few females. We hypothesize that the culling of males that are more likely to disperse might slow down genetic homogenization among neighbouring groups, but may also and more perversely produce selection on certain behavioural traits. This may have important repercussions for conservation, as it could lead to evolutionary changes that are not due to inbreeding or genetic drift.     

Polygyny and fertility differentials among the Yoruba of western Nigeria

Data are analysed from the 1973 surveys of the Nigerian segment of the Changing African Family (CAFN) Project, which covered Yoruba women and men in Ibadan and the Western State of Nigeria. Of the 5874 women who were in union during the CAFN 1 survey, 54% reported that their husband had only 1 wife and 46% that their husband had more than 1 wife. Of the 1234 women in unions in the CAFN 2 survey, 49% reported monogamous husbands and 51% polygynous husbands. Differentials in fertility levels between women in monogamous unions and those in polygynous ones are investigated using mean number of children ever born as the measure of fertility. Factors examined include proportion of childless and infertile women, frequency of intercourse, age, educational level, religion, marital mobility (divorce) rank of wife and sexual abstinence. The CAFN 1 survey shows that wives of polygynists tend to be older than those of monogamists. Because of this the reported mean number of children ever born was higher for the wives of polygynists than for the wives of monogamists. When the data are standardized for the difference in age, the fertility levels of the women in the 2 types of unions were much closer to each other. When religion, education, abstinence, and occupation are also taken into account, it is observed that the 2 groups of women have similar levels of fertility. A multiple classification analysis was performed using number of wives of husband, educational level, religion and father's occupation as variables and occupation of spouse, place of birth, length of abstinence, contraceptive practice and age as covariates. The result also shows that the number of wives of the husband does not significantly affect the fertility level of women when other factors are taken into account. A high proportion of the Yoruba women are in polygynous unions and most of those in monogamous unions are potential wives of polygynists. Because of this, and particularly because most women try to have as many children as they can, the women in the 2 types of unions experience similar levels of fertility.