Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia

Cross-Border Marriages: Gender and Mobility in Transnational Asia . Nicole Constable, ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 232 pp.     

Personality and the Gender Gap in Self-Employment: A Multi-Nation Study

What role does personality play in the pervasive gender gap in entrepreneurship across the globe? This two-study analysis focuses on self-employment in the working population and underlying gender differences in personality characteristics, thereby considering both single trait dimensions as well as a holistic, configural personality approach. Applying the five-factor model of personality, Study 1, our main study, investigates mediation models in the prediction of self-employment status utilizing self-reported personality data from large-scaled longitudinal datasets collected in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and Australia (total N = 28,762). Study 2 analyzes (observer-rated) Big Five data collected in 51 cultures (total N = 12,156) to take a more global perspective and to explore the pancultural universality of gender differences in entrepreneurial personality characteristics. Across the four countries investigated in Study 1, none of the major five dimension of personality turned out as a consistent and robust mediator. In contrast, the holistic, configural approach yielded consistent and robust mediation results. Across the four countries, males scored higher on an entrepreneurship-prone personality profile, which in turn predicted self-employment status. These results suggest that gender differences in the intra-individual configuration of personality traits contribute to the gender gap in entrepreneurship across the globe. With the restriction of limited representativeness, the data from Study 2 suggest that the gender difference in the entrepreneurship-prone personality profile (males score higher) is widespread across many cultures, but may not exist in all. The results are discussed with an emphasis on implications for research and practice, which a particular focus on the need for more complex models that incorporate the role of personality.     

Low Testosterone Concentrations in Men Contribute to the Gender Gap in Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality

BackgroundAcross the industrialized world, men experience an earlier onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and a life expectancy 5 to 10 years shorter than women. Low total testosterone (TT) concentrations in men have been suggested as a novel CVD risk factor, but its contribution to this gender gap is less well studied.MethodsWe used data of 4152 individuals (2113 women and 2039 men) aged 20 to 79 years from the longitudinal population-based cohort Study of Health in Pomerania, Germany. Multivariable Poisson and Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to investigate the risk of incident cardiovascular morbidity (5-year examination follow-up), as well as all-cause and CVD mortality (10-year follow-up) between men and women. Additionally, the added risk attributable to low TT in men (<10th percentile) was assessed.ResultsCompared with women, men were uniformly at higher risk of incident cardiovascular morbidity, including overweight, hypertension, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Men were also at increased all-cause mortality (hazard ratio = 2.05; 95% CI, 1.61–2.60) and 10-year CVD risk compared with women. In subgroup analyses, men with low TT showed the highest 10-year CVD and mortality risk compared with both men with higher TT and women. TT was also negatively associated with cardiovascular risk as defined by the Framingham risk score (P < 0.001), after multivariable adjustment.ConclusionsAnalyzing a large population-based sample, we observed that men have a generally higher risk of incident cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, men with low TT concentrations were identified as high-risk individuals with regard to 10-year CVD and mortality risk.     

The Gender Gap in Second Language Acquisition: Gender Differences in the Acquisition of Dutch among Immigrants from 88 Countries with 49 Mother Tongues

Gender differences were analyzed across countries of origin and continents, and across mother tongues and language families, using a large-scale database, containing information on 27,119 adult learners of Dutch as a second language. Female learners consistently outperformed male learners in speaking and writing proficiency in Dutch as a second language. This gender gap remained remarkably robust and constant when other learner characteristics were taken into account, such as education, age of arrival, length of residence and hours studying Dutch. For reading and listening skills in Dutch, no gender gap was found. In addition, we found a general gender by education effect for all four language skills in Dutch for speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Female language learners turned out to profit more from higher educational training than male learners do in adult second language acquisition. These findings do not seem to match nurture-oriented explanatory frameworks based for instance on a human capital approach or gender-specific acculturation processes. Rather, they seem to corroborate a nature-based, gene-environment correlational framework in which language proficiency being a genetically-influenced ability interacting with environmental factors such as motivation, orientation, education, and learner strategies that still mediate between endowment and acquiring language proficiency at an adult stage.     

Gender Differences in Questions Asked in an Online Preoperative Patient Education Program

BackgroundAlthough osteoarthritis more commonly affects women than men, women are 3 times less likely to undergo hip or knee replacement surgery compared with men. Disparity in the appropriate utilization of surgery between men and women is a complex subject that must take into account the willingness of a patient to proceed with the operation. Adequately addressing patient concerns before surgery may influence such willingness.ObjectiveWe examined if a gender difference can be identified in the frequency and types of questions submitted by patients scheduled for total hip or total knee arthroplasty.MethodsPatients completed an online interactive preoperative educational program and a database was created containing deidentified information on surgical procedure, sex, year of birth, and any questions that were submitted. Data were also available regarding the total number of patients issued the program, the number of patients who started the program, and the number of patients who completed the program. The results were analyzed by Wilcoxon rank sum test. P values ≤0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsAmong the 2770 women and 1708 men included in the study, 935 (34%) and 462 (27%) asked at least 1 question, respectively. Compared with men, women asked a significantly greater number of questions overall (P < 0.001). Women also asked a significantly greater number of questions in the categories Your Condition (P = 0.031), Your Procedure (P < 0.001), and Risks and Benefits (P < 0.001).ConclusionsGender differences in concerns and physicians' ability to adequately address these concerns may contribute to disparity in use of hip and knee replacement surgery between men and women. Effective preoperative counseling for women may require additional resources to address their higher level of questions.     

The Wikipedia Gender Gap Revisited: Characterizing Survey Response Bias with Propensity Score Estimation

Opt-in surveys are the most widespread method used to study participation in online communities, but produce biased results in the absence of adjustments for non-response. A 2008 survey conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation and United Nations University at Maastricht is the source of a frequently cited statistic that less than 13% of Wikipedia contributors are female. However, the same study suggested that only 39.9% of Wikipedia readers in the US were female – a finding contradicted by a representative survey of American adults by the Pew Research Center conducted less than two months later. Combining these two datasets through an application and extension of a propensity score estimation technique used to model survey non-response bias, we construct revised estimates, contingent on explicit assumptions, for several of the Wikimedia Foundation and United Nations University at Maastricht claims about Wikipedia editors. We estimate that the proportion of female US adult editors was 27.5% higher than the original study reported (22.7%, versus 17.8%), and that the total proportion of female editors was 26.8% higher (16.1%, versus 12.7%).     

Depression,Sex and Gender Roles in Older Adult Populations: The International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS)

Objectives

To assess the associations between gender roles and depression in older men and women and whether gender roles are independent risk factors for depression.

Methods

International cross-sectional study of adults between 65 and 74 years old (n = 1,967). Depression was defined by a score of 16 or over in the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). A validated 12-item Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) was used to classify participants in gender roles (Masculine, Feminine, Androgynous, and Undifferentiated) using research site medians of femininity and masculinity as cut-off points. Poisson regressions were fitted to estimate the prevalence ratios (PR) of depression for each gender role compared to the masculine role, adjusting for sex, sufficiency of income, education, marital status, self-rated health, and chronic conditions.

Results

Among men, 31.2% were androgynous, 26% were masculine, 14.4% were feminine, and 28.4% were undifferentiated; among women, the corresponding percentages were 32.7%, 14.9%, 27%, and 25.4%. Both in men and in women, depressive symptoms (CES-D≥16) were more prevalent in those endorsing the undifferentiated type, compared to masculine, feminine or androgynous groups. However, after adjusting for potential confounders, compared to the masculine group only those endorsing the androgynous role were 28% less likely to suffer from depression: PR of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.55–0.93). In fully adjusted models, prevalence rates of depression were not different from masculine participants in the two other gender groups of feminine and undifferentiated.

Conclusions

Androgynous roles were associated with lower rates of depression in older adults, independently of being a man or a woman.     

Moving Houses: Residential Mobility and the Mobility of Residences in Longana, Vanuatu

A key to understanding the mobility of residence patterns in Oceania can be found in the movement of houses themselves. In this article I explore the processual dynamic of residence over a 12-year period in Longana and document the high frequency with which people moved houses and households while maintaining a strong preference for virilocality. For example, more than 80% of the buildings changed households, underwent major physical changes, or both between 1978 and 1982. The reasons why houses change hands and move about relate to the domestic cycle and highlight competition between the requirements of renovation and plans to construct new buildings. Further, the impermanence of local building materials gives rise to a contradiction between rootedness and transience that defines the meaning of place. Finally, houses serve as symbols of kinship that articulate land and people and that express a link between matrilineal and patrifilial groups.     

神经组织缝隙连接

近年来神经组织中缝隙连接的分布和功能研究取得了一些显著进展。分子生物学方法的应用促进了ＧＪ结构,亚型及生物物理特性的揭示,染料偶联实验和Ｃａ＾２＋成像技术为ＧＪ的功能研究提供了直观有效的手段。ＧＪ的调控涉及ＧＪ的表达,导通性的改变等环节。ＧＪ胞间通讯的基本形式是交换第二信使和电偶联。     

Effects of Treatment with Zofenopril in Men and Women with Acute Myocardial Infarction: Gender Analysis of the SMILE Program

Background

the SMILE studies proved the prognostic benefit of zofenopril vs. placebo or other ACE-inhibitors (ACEIs) in post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In this retrospective pooled analysis of these studies we assessed whether the zofenopril effect is influenced by gender.

Methods

the four double-blind, randomized, parallel-group SMILE studies, compared the efficacy and safety of 6–48 week treatment with zofenopril 60 mg/day with that of placebo, lisinopril 10 mg/day or ramipril 10 mg/day in 3630 AMI patients. This pooled analysis compared treatment efficacy (1-year combined occurrence of death or hospitalization for CV causes) in 2733 men and 897 women.

Results

women were older than men, had a higher prevalence of diabetes and of other major CV risk factors. The risk of a major CV event was significantly larger for women (23% vs. 17% men, p<0.001). Between-gender risk difference was more marked for people living in Southern (+54%) than in Northern Europe (+12%). In both genders zofenopril similarly reduced the 1-year risk of CV morbidity and mortality vs. placebo (−39% men, p = 0.0001; −40% women, p = 0.005). The risk reduction was more marked with zofenopril than with the other ACEIs, particularly in men (−27%, p = 0.012; women: −14%, p = 0.479). The drug safety profile was similar between genders in zofenopril-treated patients, while it was worse in women treated with other ACEIs.

Conclusions

post-AMI women are at higher risk of CV complications than men, particularly when living in Mediterranean countries. Their response to ACE-inhibition varies according to the type of drug and is usually better in men.     

Mobility in the mitochondrial electron transport chain

The role of lateral diffusion in mitochondrial electron transport has been investigated by measuring the diffusion coefficients for lipid, cytochrome c, and cytochrome oxidase in membranes of giant mitoplasts from cuprizone-fed mice using the technique of fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching (FRAP). The diffusion coefficient of the phospholipid analogue N-(7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazol-4-yl)phosphatidylethanolamine is dependent on the technique used to remove the outer mitochondrial membrane. A sonication technique yields mitoplasts with monophasic recovery of the lipid probe (D = 6 X 10(-9) cm2/s), while digitonin-treated mitochondria show biphasic recoveries (D1 = 5 X 10(-9) cm2/s; D2 = 1 X 10(-9) cm2/s). Digitonin appears to incorporate into mitoplasts, giving rise to decreased lipid mobility concomitant with increased rates of electron transfer from succinate to oxygen, in a manner reminiscent of the effects of cholesterol incorporation [Schneider, H., Lemasters, J. J., Hochli, M., & Hackenbrock, C. R. (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255, 3748-3756]. FRAP measurements on tetramethylrhodamine cytochrome c modified at lysine-39 and on a mixture of active morpholinorhodamine derivatives of cytochrome c gave diffusion coefficients of (3.5-7) X 10(-10) cm2/s depending on the assay medium. With morpholinorhodamine-labeled antibodies purified on a cytochrome oxidase affinity column, the diffusion coefficient for cytochrome oxidase was determined to be 1.5 X 10(-10) cm2/s. The results are discussed in terms of a dynamic aggregate model in which an equilibrium exists between freely diffusing and associated electron-transfer components.