The dual impact of gender and the influence of timing of parenthood on men’s and women’s career development: Longitudinal findings

This study investigated the impact of gender, the gender-related self-concept (agency and communion), and the timing of parenthood on objective career success of 1,015 highly educated professionals. Hypotheses derived from a dual-impact model of gender and career-related processes were tested in a 5-wave longitudinal study over a time span of 10 years starting with participants’ career entry. In line with our hypotheses we found that the communal component of the gender self-concept had an impact on parenthood, and the agentic component influenced work hours and objective career success (salary, status) of both women and men. Parenthood had a negative direct influence on women’s work hours and a negative indirect influence on women’s objective career success. Women who had their first child around career entry were relatively least successful over the observation period. Men’s career success was independent of parenthood. Sixty-five percent of variance in women’s career success and 33% of variance in men’s career success was explained by the factors analyzed here. Mothers with partners working full time reduced their work hours more than mothers with partners not working full time. A test for a possible reverse influence of career success on the decision to become a parent revealed no effect for men and equivocal effects for women. We conclude that the transition to parenthood still is a crucial factor for women’s career development both from an external gender perspective (expectations, gender roles) and from an internal perspective (gender-related self-concept).

Development of meta-representations: Procedural metacognition and the relationship to Theory of Mind

In several studies it was shown that metacognitive ability is crucial for children and their success in school. Much less is known about the emergence of that ability and its relationship to other meta-representations like Theory of Mind competencies. In the past years, a growing literature has suggested that metacognition and Theory of Mind could theoretically be assumed to belong to the same developmental concept. Since then only a few studies showed empirically evidence that metacognition and Theory of Mind are related. But these studies focused on declarative metacognitive knowledge rather than on procedural metacognitive monitoring like in the present study: N = 159 children were first tested shortly before making the transition to school (aged between 5 1/2 and 7 1/2 years) and one year later at the end of their first grade. Analyses suggest that there is in fact a significant relation between early metacognitive monitoring skills (procedural metacognition) and later Theory of Mind competencies. Notably, language seems to play a crucial role in this relationship. Thus our results bring new insights in the research field of the development of meta-representation and support the view that metacognition and Theory of Mind are indeed interrelated, but the precise mechanisms yet remain unclear.

FUS/TLS contributes to replication-dependent histone gene expression by interaction with U7 snRNPs and histone-specific transcription factors.

Replication-dependent histone genes are up-regulated during the G1/S phase transition to meet the requirement for histones to package the newly synthesized DNA. In mammalian cells, this increment is achieved by enhanced transcription and 3' end processing. The non-polyadenylated histone mRNA 3' ends are generated by a unique mechanism involving the U7 small ribonucleoprotein (U7 snRNP). By using affinity purification methods to enrich U7 snRNA, we identified FUS/TLS as a novel U7 snRNP interacting protein. Both U7 snRNA and histone transcripts can be precipitated by FUS antibodies predominantly in the S phase of the cell cycle. Moreover, FUS depletion leads to decreased levels of correctly processed histone mRNAs and increased levels of extended transcripts. Interestingly, FUS antibodies also co-immunoprecipitate histone transcriptional activator NPAT and transcriptional repressor hnRNP UL1 in different phases of the cell cycle. We further show that FUS binds to histone genes in S phase, promotes the recruitment of RNA polymerase II and is important for the activity of histone gene promoters. Thus, FUS may serve as a linking factor that positively regulates histone gene transcription and 3' end processing by interacting with the U7 snRNP and other factors involved in replication-dependent histone gene expression.

Sustainable Development Appraisal (SDA): A methodological tool for the participatory assessment of sustainability from local to regional planning levels

The term 'sustainable development' is receiving increasing attention in development co-operation and at the global level. However, practical tools which can help local users and multi-disciplinary teams to work together and apply this general concept at the local to regional levels have' emerged only very recently. This paper describes a tool called 'Sustainable Development Appraisal' (SDA), which is based on the principles of sustainable development, and can be applied by small interdisciplinary teams using a transdisciplinary approach, i.e. in participation with local land users and other stakeholders at various levels of intervention. The SDA has been applied in different parts of the globe. It is receiving considerable attention, and may fulfil most requirements contained in the concept of sustainable development, and yet be practically applicable and useful in the local to regional context. Examples from Eritrea and Ethiopia are used in this paper 'to illustrate the practicability of SDA for development planning and implementation.

Total disc arthroplasty versus anterior cervical interbody fusion: use of the Spine Tango registry to supplement the evidence from randomized control trials.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have compared patient outcomes of anterior (cervical) interbody fusion (AIF) with those of total disc arthroplasty (TDA). Because RCTs have known limitations with regard to their external validity, the comparative effectiveness of the two therapies in daily practice remains unknown. PURPOSE This study aimed to compare patient-reported outcomes after TDA versus AIF based on data from an international spine registry. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING A retrospective analysis of registry data was carried out. PATIENT SAMPLE Inclusion criteria were degenerative disc or disc herniation of the cervical spine treated by single-level TDA or AIF, no previous surgery, and a Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) completed at baseline and at least 3 months' follow-up. Overall, 987 patients were identified. OUTCOME MEASURES Neck and arm pain relief and COMI score improvement were the outcome measures. METHODS Three separate analyses were performed to compare TDA and AIF surgical outcomes: (1) mimicking an RCT setting, with admission criteria typical of those in published RCTs, a 1:1 matched analysis was carried out in 739 patients; (2) an analysis was performed on 248 patients outside the classic RCT spectrum, that is, with one or more typical RCT exclusion criteria; (3) a subgroup analysis of all patients with additional follow-up longer than 2 years (n=149). RESULTS Matching resulted in 190 pairs with an average follow-up of 17 months that had no residual significant differences for any patient characteristics. Small but statistically significant differences in outcome were observed in favor of TDA, which are potentially clinically relevant. Subgroup analyses of atypical patients and of patients with longer-term follow-up showed no significant differences in outcome between the treatments. CONCLUSIONS The results of this observational study were in accordance with those of the published RCTs, suggesting substantial pain reduction both after AIF and TDA, with slightly greater benefit after arthroplasty. The analysis of atypical patients suggested that, in patients outside the spectrum of clinical trials, both surgical interventions appeared to work to a similar extent to that shown for the cohort in the matched study. Also, in the longer-term perspective, both therapies resulted in similar benefits to the patients.