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This report provides tremendous insight on gender norms an area that has been resistant to change, and that constrains achievement of gender equality across many diverse cultures. The report synthesizes data collected from more than 4,000 women and men in 97 communities across 20 countries. It is the largest dataset ever collected on the topic of gender and development, providing an unprecedented opportunity to examine potential patterns across communities on social norms and gender roles, pathways of empowerment, and factors that drive acute inequalities. The analysis raises the profile of persistent social norms and their impact on agency, and catalyzes discourse on the many pathways that create opportunities for women and men to negotiate transformative change. The report is underpinned by the fact that arguably the single most important contribution to development is to unleash the full power of half the people on the planet women. It underscores how crucial making investments in learning, supporting innovations that reduce the time costs of women s mobility, and developing a critical mass of women and men pushing the boundaries of entrenched social norms are in enhancing women s agency and capacity to aspire.

Cardiovascular diseases are still the main cause of death among women despite the improvements in treatment and prognosis achieved in the last 30 years of research. The determinant factors and causes have not been completely identified but the role of “gender” is now recognized. It is well known that women tend to develop cardiovascular disease at an older age than men, and have a high probability of manifesting atypical symptoms not often recognized. Other factors may also co-exist in women, which may favor the onset of specific cardiac diseases such as those with a sex-specific etiology (differential effects of estrogens, pregnancy pathologies, etc.) and those with a different gender expression of specific and prevalent risk factors, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and cancer. Whether the gender differences observed in cardiovascular outcomes are influenced by real biological differences remains a matter of debate.

ABSTRACT Purpose Our aim was to untangle the effect of biological sex and psychosocial gender on rates of self‐reported cancer. Methods For this study, the Austrian Health Information Survey 2019 was used. Individuals with cancer (n = 415) were selected and divided by sex (female 53.3%). Descriptive results were reported as mean/standard deviation or frequency/percentage. Next, the cancer versus non‐cancer and female versus male cancer cohorts were compared by using a chi‐square test or an unpaired t‐test. By logistic regression models adjusted by age, the association of cancer, biological sex, and gender‐related variables (including employment status, educational level, marital status, household income and size) was investigated in the total cohort, as well as stratified by sex. Results Self‐reported cancer was positively related with being unemployed/retired versus employed (OR 2.06, p < 0.001), being married versus single (OR 1.90, p = 0.005), household size over 1 compared to 1 (OR 1.42, p = 0.025), self‐reported depression (OR 2.13, p < 0.001), and former smoking (OR 1.84, p < 0.001). A negative relation between having cancer and being a daily smoker was seen (OR 0.22, p = 0.006). No association between cancer and biological sex was found. Similar correlations of gender‐related variables on cancer rates were found in the sex‐disaggregated analyses; however, marital status as well as daily smoking were not associated with cancer diagnosis in males. In contrast to males, in females former smoking and alcohol consumption showed no association with cancer rates. Conclusion Our findings suggest that gender‐related variables, rather than biological sex, are associated with sel‐reported cancer. Psychosocial gender is related to rates of self‐reported cancer. Especially, conditions involving significant caregiving responsibilities and stress are correlated with higher rates of self‐reported cancer.

▪ Abstract  Nonpathogenic rhizobacteria can induce a systemic resistance in plants that is phenotypically similar to pathogen-induced systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Rhizobacteria-mediated induced systemic resistance (ISR) has been demonstrated against fungi, bacteria, and viruses in Arabidopsis, bean, carnation, cucumber, radish, tobacco, and tomato under conditions in which the inducing bacteria and the challenging pathogen remained spatially separated. Bacterial strains differ in their ability to induce resistance in different plant species, and plants show variation in the expression of ISR upon induction by specific bacterial strains. Bacterial determinants of ISR include lipopolysaccharides, siderophores, and salicylic acid (SA). Whereas some of the rhizobacteria induce resistance through the SA-dependent SAR pathway, others do not and require jasmonic acid and ethylene perception by the plant for ISR to develop. No consistent host plant alterations are associated with the induced state, but upon challenge inoculation, resistance responses are accelerated and enhanced. ISR is effective under field conditions and offers a natural mechanism for biological control of plant disease.

Despite striking differences in climate, soils, and evolutionary history among diverse biomes ranging from tropical and temperate forests to alpine tundra and desert, we found similar interspecific relationships among leaf structure and function and plant growth in all biomes. Our results thus demonstrate convergent evolution and global generality in plant functioning, despite the enormous diversity of plant species and biomes. For 280 plant species from two global data sets, we found that potential carbon gain (photosynthesis) and carbon loss (respiration) increase in similar proportion with decreasing leaf life-span, increasing leaf nitrogen concentration, and increasing leaf surface area-to-mass ratio. Productivity of individual plants and of leaves in vegetation canopies also changes in constant proportion to leaf life-span and surface area-to-mass ratio. These global plant functional relationships have significant implications for global scale modeling of vegetation-atmosphere CO2 exchange

Myostatin (GDF-8) is a member of the transforming growth factor β superfamily of secreted growth and differentiation factors that is essential for proper regulation of skeletal muscle mass in mice. Here we report the myostatin sequences of nine other vertebrate species and the identification of mutations in the coding sequence of bovine myostatin in two breeds of double-muscled cattle, Belgian Blue and Piedmontese, which are known to have an increase in muscle mass relative to conventional cattle. The Belgian Blue myostatin sequence contains an 11-nucleotide deletion in the third exon which causes a frameshift that eliminates virtually all of the mature, active region of the molecule. The Piedmontese myostatin sequence contains a missense mutation in exon 3, resulting in a substitution of tyrosine for an invariant cysteine in the mature region of the protein. The similarity in phenotypes of double-muscled cattle and myostatin null mice suggests that myostatin performs the same biological function in these two species and is a potentially useful target for genetic manipulation in other farm animals.

Mortality in adults with and without diabetes in a national cohort of the U.S. population, 1971-1993. K Gu , C C Cowie and M I Harris National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Abstract OBJECTIVE: To examine 22-year mortality (1971-1993), causes of death, life expectancy, and survival in a national sample of diabetic and nondiabetic adults according to age, sex, and race. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A representative national cohort of 14,374 adults aged 25-74 years was identified in 1971-1975 in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES I). Diabetes was ascertained by medical history interview. The cohort was followed for mortality through 1992-1993, with verification of vital status for 96.2% (n = 13,830). Causes of death were determined from death certificates. RESULTS: Diabetic subjects comprised 5.1% of the cohort and accounted for 10.6% of the deaths. Mortality for diabetic subjects increased from 12.4 per 1,000 person-years for those aged 25-44 years at baseline to 89.7 per 1,000 person-years for those aged 65-74 years. The age-adjusted mortality rate was 57% higher for diabetic men than for diabetic women; the rate was 27% higher for diabetic non-Hispanic blacks than for diabetic non-Hispanic whites. Mortality rates were highest for insulin-treated subjects and for those with > or = 15 years' duration of diabetes. Diabetes was listed on the death certificate as the underlying cause of death for only 7.7% of diabetic men and 13.4% of diabetic women. Considering multiple causes of death, heart disease was listed the most frequently and was present on 69.5% of death certificates of people with diabetes. Death rates were higher for diabetic than for nondiabetic subjects in all age, sex, and race groups. The relative risk of death (diabetic versus nondiabetic subjects) declined with age from a value of 3.6 for those aged 25-44 years at baseline to 1.5 for those aged 65-74 years. The relative risk was elevated in diabetic subjects for all major causes of death except malignant neoplasms. Survival of diabetic subjects was lower than that of nondiabetic subjects in all age, sex, and race groups. Median life expectancy was 8 years lower for diabetic adults aged 55-64 years and 4 years lower for those aged 65-74 years. CONCLUSIONS: In this representative national sample of adults, mortality rates were higher for diabetic men than for diabetic women and for diabetic blacks than for diabetic whites. The study confirms the substantially higher risk of death, lower survival, and lower life expectancy of diabetic adults compared with nondiabetic adults.

This review focuses on the monoterpene, sesquiterpene, and diterpene synthases of plant origin that use the corresponding C10, C15, and C20 prenyl diphosphates as substrates to generate the enormous diversity of carbon skeletons characteristic of the terpenoid family of natural products. A description of the enzymology and mechanism of terpenoid cyclization is followed by a discussion of molecular cloning and heterologous expression of terpenoid synthases. Sequence relatedness and phylogenetic reconstruction, based on 33 members of the Tps gene family, are delineated, and comparison of important structural features of these enzymes is provided. The review concludes with an overview of the organization and regulation of terpenoid metabolism, and of the biotechnological applications of terpenoid synthase genes

According to recent competition theory, the population dynamics of phytoplankton species in monoculture can be used to make a priori predictions of the dynamics and outcome of competition for light. The species with lowest \"critical light intensity\" should be the superior light competitor. To test this theory, we ran monoculture experiments and competition experiments with two green algae (Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus protuberans) and two cyanobacteria (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and a Microcystis strain) in light-limited continuous cultures. We used the monoculture experiments to estimate the critical light intensities of the species. Scenedesmus had by far the highest critical light intensity. The critical light intensities of Chlorella, Aphanizomenon, and Microcystis were rather similar. According to observation, Aphanizomenon had a slightly lower critical light intensity than Chlorella and Microcystis. However, according to a model fit to the monoculture experiments, Chlorella had a slightly lower critical light intensity than Microcystis, which in turn had a slightly lower critical light intensity than Aphanizomenon. These subtle differences between observed and fitted critical light intensities could be attributed to differences in the light absorption spectra of the species. The competition experiments were all consistent with the competitive ordering of the species according to the fitted critical light intensities: Chlorella displaced all three other species, Microcystis displaced both Aphanizomenon and Scenedesmus, and Aphanizomenon only displaced Scenedesmus. Not only the final outcomes, but also the time courses of competition predicted by the theory, were in excellent agreement with the experimental results for nearly all species combinations.

Misuse of drugs and natural rewards, such as food, share common neural pathways and comparably influence behavioral consequences. Food-restriction enhances drug-taking and drug-seeking behaviors in animals, but the effect of food-restriction on cocaine self-administration and cocaine-seeking in both sexes has not been well characterized. Therefore, the present study investigated differences between food-restricted vs. feeding male and female Wistar rats on the acquisition of cocaine self-administration and cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking. Food access sex-dependently altered the acquisition of cocaine self-administration such that food-restricted females, but not males, displayed an escalated intake behavior over time. Only food-restricted females differed significantly between active and inactive lever pressing during the reinstatement of cocaine-seeking session. Taken together, these results suggest that food-restriction sex-dependently improves learning of cocaine self-administration that persists to alter cocaine-seeking behavior following abstinence.