Pregnancy and birth cohort resources in europe: a large opportunity for aetiological child health research

BACKGROUND During the past 25 years, many pregnancy and birth cohorts have been established. Each cohort provides unique opportunities for examining associations of early-life exposures with child development and health. However, to fully exploit the large amount of available resources and to facilitate cross-cohort collaboration, it is necessary to have accessible information on each cohort and its individual characteristics. The aim of this work was to provide an overview of European pregnancy and birth cohorts registered in a freely accessible database located at http://www.birthcohorts.net. METHODS European pregnancy and birth cohorts initiated in 1980 or later with at least 300 mother-child pairs enrolled during pregnancy or at birth, and with postnatal data, were eligible for inclusion. Eligible cohorts were invited to provide information on the data and biological samples collected, as well as the timing of data collection. RESULTS In total, 70 cohorts were identified. Of these, 56 fulfilled the inclusion criteria encompassing a total of more than 500,000 live-born European children. The cohorts represented 19 countries with the majority of cohorts located in Northern and Western Europe. Some cohorts were general with multiple aims, whilst others focused on specific health or exposure-related research questions. CONCLUSION This work demonstrates a great potential for cross-cohort collaboration addressing important aspects of child health. The web site, http://www.birthcohorts.net, proved to be a useful tool for accessing information on European pregnancy and birth cohorts and their characteristics.

Work Experiences and Well-Being in the First Years of Professional Work in Switzerland: A Ten-Year Follow-Up Study

The ÆQUAS (a German acronym for “Work Experiences and Quality of Life in Switzerland”) study followed young workers in five occupations over their first ten years in the labor market. Participants of the study reported on working conditions and well-being at five occasions. Overall, resources at work as well as well-being, health and personal resources remained stable or increased. Concurrently, task-related stressors increased as well. This result may reflect career progress (e.g., gaining more responsibilities may be accompanied by increasing time pressure) but development in task-related stressors as well as resources may also be related to specific occupations. Several trajectories had their turning point after the first or second year of being in the labor market, which may reflect a successful professional socialization. Even though a substantial number of participants did change their occupation over these ten years (with benefits for their well-being), development over the first ten years after vocational training implies a successful transition into labor market.

Contested Control: Irregular Transit Migrants in Europe

This presentation is about young migrants’ journeys with low chances of receiving asylum or any other type of residence in Europe. These migrants exhibit a highly complex migration pattern. First, these migrants are frequently in durable “transit” across Europe, moving back and forth between different states. Second, transit migrants must exhibit a high degree of flexibility, as they have to respond to suddenly changing conditions, such as work opportunities, rejection of asylum claims, detention or deportation. Third, transit migrants often switch between different legal statuses, such as asylum seeker, rejected asylum seeker, illegal worker or detainee. This throws them into a general state of uncertainty and psychological distress. The experience of these young adults shows a deep ambivalence between a sense of autonomy, on the one hand, and of profound hope- and powerlessness, on the other. This presentation explores the “fragmented journeys” of these migrants, by way of a multi-sited ethnographic approach and biographical interviews. It focuses on the lived experiences and the strategies of irregular migrants to find a way to reside in Europe in the context of an increasingly restrictive migration management.

Time pressure, social work stressors and blood pressure in a team of seven IT-workers during one week of intense work

Background. In the field of information technology (IT) time pressure is common. Working with tight deadlines together on the same task increases the risk of social stressors referring to tensions and conflicts at work. Purpose. This field study tested both the association of time pressure and social stressors with blood pressure during work. Method. Seven employees – staff of a small IT enterprise – participated in repeated ambulatory blood pressure measurements over the course of one week. Time pressure and social stressors at work were assessed by questionnaire at the beginning of the study. Results. Multilevel regression analyses of 138 samples revealed higher levels of time pressure to be related to marginally significant increases in mean arterial blood pressure at noon and in the afternoon. In addition, higher levels of social stressors at work were significantly associated to elevated mean arterial pressure in the afternoon. Conclusion. Findings support the view that threats to the social self play an important role in occupational health.

Stuck in Mobility? Fragmented Journeys of Migrants without Chances of Admission in Europe

This paper is about young migrants without chance of being granted legal residence status in the Schengen zone. Previous observations suggest that some migrants, whose country of origin leaves them with low chances of receiving asylum or in fact any type of residence permit, exhibit a highly complex migration pattern that is characterised by 1) durable “transit” across Europe, which is a multi-linear movement according to opportunities that open up along the journey; 2) a high degree of flexibility, as they have to respond to suddenly changing conditions, such as work opportunities, rejection of asylum claims, detention or deportation, and 3) switching between different legal statuses, such as asylum seeker, sans papiers or detainee. The experiences of these young adults thus show a deep ambivalence between a sense of autonomy, on the one hand, and of profound hope and powerlessness, on the other. The Dublin Convention intends to limit such a hypermobility of migrants but seems to fail in many cases. Simultaneously it provokes some of the movements by sending asylum seekers and irregular migrants back to their first country of arrivals. Given the fact that little is known about these fragmented journeys inside of the Schengen area, this ethnographic study produces novel data on a highly pertinent migration pattern, the impact of the European migration management on individual migrants as well as the inter-relatedness of the asylum regime and irregular migration in Europe. At the same time these fragmented journeys are an excellent example to discuss mobility as a resource on the one hand (since it enables this specific migrant group to extend their presence in Europe) and as a handicap on the other (since it impedes the building of stable social networks, the planning of the future, etc.).

Frequency-dependent social dominance in a color polymorphic cichlid fish

A mechanism commonly suggested to explain the persistence of color polymorphisms in animals is negative frequency-dependent selection. It could result from a social dominance advantage to rare morphs. We tested for this in males of red and blue color morphs of the Lake Victoria cichlid, Pundamilia. Earlier work has shown that males preferentially attack the males of their own morph, while red males are more likely to win dyadic contests with blue males. In order to study the potential contribution of both factors to the morph co-existence, we manipulated the proportion of red and blue males in experimental assemblages and studied its effect on social dominance. We then tried to disentangle the effects of the own-morph attack bias and social dominance of red using simulations. In the experiment, we found that red males were indeed socially dominant to the blue ones, but only when rare. However, blue males were not socially dominant when rare. The simulation results suggest that an own-morph attack bias reduces the social dominance of red males when they are more abundant. Thus, there is no evidence of symmetric negative frequency-dependent selection acting on social dominance, suggesting that additional fitness costs to the red morph must explain their co-existence.

Follow-up programs for childhood cancer survivors in Europe: a questionnaire survey

For many childhood cancer survivors follow-up care is important long after treatment completion. We aimed to describe the availability and characteristics of long-term follow-up programs (LTFU) across Europe, their content and aims, their problems, and to assess opinions on different models of LTFU.