Women’s empowerment and food consumption:Evidence from female-headed households in Tanzania

Despite the growing recognition of women’s increasing role in the household and corresponding empowerment programs in sub-Saharan Africa,intensive research on the relationship between women’s influence and household food consumption is minimal.Using the most recent(2017-2018)national household survey data from Tanzania,this study examined the influence of women’s empowerment on household food consumption.First,we compared the monthly consumption of eight food categories between female-headed households(FHHs)and male-headed households(MHHs)using both descriptive statistics and the propensity score matching(PSM)method.Furthermore,we adopted the two-stage Linear Expenditure System and Almost Ideal Demand System model(LES-AIDS)to estimate income and price elasticities for the two household types.The results show that FHHs consume bread and cereals,fish,oils and fats,vegetables,and confectionery(sugar,jam,honey,chocolate,etc.)more than MHHs.Moreover,FHHs have a significantly higher income elasticity of demand for all food groups than MHHs.They are also more price elastic than MHHs in meat,fish,oils,fats,sugar,jam,honey,chocolate,etc.

The Three Principles of Institutional Safeguards for Women's Participation in Legislation in China

The participation of women in legislation is an important aspect and means of safeguarding women’s rights.Feminist theory,based on criticism of both the“citizenship identity theory as rights”and the“citizenship identity theory as responsibilities,”proposes the“citizenship identity theory as subjectivity.”Observing the current practice of women’s participation in legislation in China,two institutional safeguard principles can be summarized:the“minimum proportion”and the“influence evaluation.”However,each of these principles has its inherent limitations.Therefore,it is necessary to supplement them with the principle of“subjective participation”in a reflective manner.This principle requires women to participate substantively in the legislative process as subjects,express women’s needs and demands,input women’s perspectives and experiences,and reconstruct the distribution of rights and responsibilities in the existing legislation.The three principles complement each other and work together to comprehensively constitute the institutional structure of women’s participation in legislation,thereby promoting the reproduction of corresponding action structures.

A Historical Review of the Development of Women’s Higher Education in China (1908-2020): Stages, Explanations, and Trends

The development of women’s higher education in China can be divided into four stages:emergence(1908-1948);foundation(1949-1976);accelerating development(1977-2008);and the qualitative leap(2009-2020).This work considers the principal institutional mechanisms that contributed to this development.First,flexibly planned parenthood gradually promoted gender equality and openness in society facilitated by systematic“awards,grants,and loans”initiatives to support women’s higher education economically.Second,compulsory education ensured that left-out and migrant children had access to higher education.Third,effective connectivity across different education types bridged education gaps between those with different levels of education.Fourth,China made great efforts to invite and integrate international experiences that promoted the development of women’s higher education.Looking beyond these achievements,we also discuss the future trends of women’s higher education in China.

ADVANCES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON ACUPUNCTURE AND MOXIBUSTION FOR TREATMENT OF WOMEN'S CLIMACTERIC SYNDROME

To introduce the advances of experimental research on acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of Women＇s Climacteric Syndrome.The recent years experimental research literature of acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of Women＇s Climacteric Syndrome were reviewed.The research literatures on acupuncture treatment were major,focusing on the field of acupuncture and moxibustion regulating hypothalamic-pituitary-gonad axis and nerval-endocritic-immune net.Acupuncture and moxibustion could regulate the endocrine environment of menopausal women.Taking advantage of combination biomedicine with multi-sciences,to improve the acupuncture and moxibustion curative effct and probe the mechanism of menopausal pathology and acupuncture and moxibustion function to Women＇s Climacteric Syndrome,is the research direction afterward.

Women＇s speech in variation studies

It is demonstrated by sociolinguistic variation studies that women are more likely than men to use standard speech. This paper reviews the operational methods and analytical means of classic quantitative studies in this field, intending to provide guidance and enlightenment for relevant studies and verifications in the context of Chinese culture.

The Women Characters of the 1930s in the Chinese TV Serials

The women of the 1930s in the Chinese TV serials deduct inspiring stories.They play different roles in the big wealthy families such as mothers-in-law,daughters-in-law,and maidservants.There are unceasing conflicts between these women,because of their struggle for men's love,wealth or social position.The theme of their stories is always about fertility,love,kindness and evil,with the ending being either comic or tragic.The stories of various kinds of women of the 1930s in the Chinese TV serials decorate and enrich the lives of many of us latecomers and their names are passed on from generation to generation.

Ascher syndrome: a rare case of blepharochalasis combined with double lip and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis

Dear Editor,I am Dr. Yao Fu, from the Department of Ophthalmology,Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. I write to present a rare case of Ascher syndrome.Ascher syndrome was described first in 1920, presenting as a combination of blepharochalasis, double lip, and non-toxic goitre(1)It is considered to be a rare, sporadic.

Evaluation of “top-down” treatment of early Crohn's disease by double balloon enteroscopy

AIM: To assess “top-down” treatment for deep remission of early moderate to severe Crohn’s disease (CD) by double balloon enteroscopy.

Patterns of medication use for the treatment of menopausal symptoms before and after the women’s health initiative;implications for decision-making practices of women and women’s health professionals

Background: The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) published findings in 2002 that changed the perception of the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the reduction of cardiovascular risks. Menopausal women using HRT for the relief of vasomotor symptoms were advised to use the lowest possible dose of HRT over the shortest possible duration. Objective: This study sought to examine patterns of HRT use for the treatment of menopausal symptoms before and after the WHI among women at least 40 years of age. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on a total of 1367 women in the pre-WHI group and 6467 women in the post-WHI group using the U.S. General Electric (GE) Centricity electronic medical record database. Menopause diagnosis was assessed using ICD-9 codes. Clinical characteristics and medication use were assessed for women with at least 3 years of enrollment (1 year baseline, 2 years follow-up). Results: The proportion of women in the post-WHI group that initiated HRT was significantly less than that of women in the pre-WHI group (31.3% vs. 56.9%, respectively;p < 0.001). Combination HRT use declined significantly (21.9% pre-WHI cohort vs. 7.2% post- WHI cohort, p < 0.001) among increases in non-HRT use, namely SSRIs (15.2% pre-WHI cohort v. 22.3% post-WHI cohort, p < 0.001) and tranquilizers (9.5% pre-WHI cohort v. 15.8% post-WHI cohort, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results of the WHI 2002 publication made an impression on the perception of HRT’s role in the relief of menopausal symptoms. Decision-making on the part of women seeking treatment for vasomotor symptoms and women’s health professionals demonstrates that despite HRT precautions, women continue to exhibit a need for HRT use. This study’s findings suggest that women seeking treatment for menopausal symptom relief and women’s health professionals continue to work together to find the appropriate balance between therapy use and adherence to therapy use guidelines.

Clinical implications of doubling time of gastrointestinal submucosal tumors

AIM To evaluate the efficacy of doubling time(DT) of gastrointestinal submucosal tumors(GIST).METHODS From April 1987 through November 2012, a total of 323 patients were given a final histopathological diagnosis of GISTs on surgical resection or endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration(EUS-FNA) in Kitasato University East Hospital or Kitasato University Hospital. We studied 53 of these patients(34 with resected tumors and 19 with unresected tumors) whose tumors could be measured on EUS on at least two successive occasions. The histopathological diagnosis was GIST in 34 patients, leiomyoma in 5, schwannoma in 3, ectopic pancreas in 1, hamartoma in 1, cyst in 1, Brunner's adenoma in 1, and spindle-cell tumor in 7. We retrospectively calculated the DT of GISTs on the basis of the time course of EUS findings to estimate the growth rate of such tumors.RESULTS The DT was 17.2 mo for GIST, as compared with 231.2 mo for leiomyoma, 104.7 mo for schwannoma, 274.9mo for ectopic pancreas, 61.2 mo for hamartoma, 49.0 mo for cyst, and 134.7 mo for Brunner's adenoma. The GISTs were divided into risk classes on the basis of tumor diameters and mitotic figures(Fletcher's classification). The classification was extremely low risk or low risk in 28 patients, intermediate risk in 3, and high risk in 3. DT of GIST according to risk was 24.0 mo for extremely low-risk plus low-risk GIST, 17.1 mo for intermediate-risk GIST, and 3.9 mo for high-risk GIST. DT of GIST was significantly shorter than that of leiomyoma plus schwannoma(P < 0.05), and DT of high-risk GIST was significantly shorter than that of extremely low-risk plus low-risk GIST(P < 0.05).CONCLUSION For GIST, a higher risk grade was associated with a significantly shorter DT. Small SMTs should initially be followed up within 6 mo after detection.

Influence of group B streptococcus and vaginal cleanliness on the vaginal microbiome of pregnant women

BACKGROUND The vaginal microbiome plays a critical role in the health of pregnant women and their newborns.Group B Streptococcus(GBS)and vaginal cleanliness significantly affect the vaginal microecosystem and are closely associated with vaginal diseases.AIM To explore the effects of GBS status and vaginal cleanliness on vaginal microecosystems.METHODS We collected 160 vaginal swabs from pregnant women and divided them into the following four groups based on GBS status and vaginal cleanliness:GBS-positive+vaginal cleanliness I–II degree,GBS-negative+vaginal cleanliness I–II degree,GBS-positive+vaginal cleanliness III–IV degree,and GBS-negative+vaginal cleanliness III–IV degree.Samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.RESULTS Alpha diversity analysis showed that the Shannon index did not significantly differ between the four groups.We identified significant variation in taxa abundance between the GBS-positive and GBS-negative groups and between the vaginal cleanliness I–II degree and III–IV degree groups.Principal coordinate analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis further confirmed the microbial diversity of the four groups.Moreover,the linear discriminant analysis demonstrated that Lactobacillus jensenii and Actinobacteria were strongly associated with GBS-positive status,and Lactobacillus iners,Lactobacillaceae,Lactobacillus,Lactobacillales,Bacilli and Firmicutes were closely correlated with GBS-negative status.CONCLUSION GBS status and vaginal cleanliness significantly affect vaginal microbiome differences in pregnant women.Our findings provide instructional information for clinical antibiotic treatment in pregnant women with different GBS statuses and vaginal cleanliness degrees.

Establishment of a Parkinson’s disease model in rats via striatal one-site double injection Feasibility observation

BACKGROUND： To date, many 6-hydroxydopamine （6-OHDA）-lesioned rat models have been established by injecting 6-OHDA into two or more sites in the substantia nigra pars compacta, striatum or median forebrain bundle. The success rate of models established by this method is satisfactory, but it can raise the death rate, and is elaborate and tedious to perform. OBJECTIVE： To observe the difference between injections of 6-OHDA into the striatum from one site and two sites, and to explore the feasibility of establishing Parkinson＇s disease rat models via striatal one-site double injection. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING： A randomized, controlled animal experiment based on a modeling comparison was performed at the Pharmacology Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between August 2005 and April 2006. MATERIALS： A total of 46 male Wistar rats were purchased from Beijing Weitong Lihua Experimental Animal Technical Co., Ltd., China. 6-OHDA hydrogen bromide was sourced from Sigma Co., Ltd., USA. METHODS： All 46 rats were randomized to three groups： one-site injection （n = 18）, two-site injection （n = 18）, and control （n = 10）. Lesions in rat brains were established by infusing 5 μg 6-OHDA into the striatum at the following coordinates： anteroposterior （AP） 1.0 mm, mediolateral （ML） 2.7 mm, dorsoventral （DV）-5.2 or-6.0 mm for the one-site injection group, and AP 1.0 mm, ML 2.5 mm, DV -4.5 mm/AP-0.4 mm, ML 3.5 mm, DV-4.5 mm for the two-site injection group, respectively. Rats in the control group were injected with the same volume of 0.01% ascorbic acid as above. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES： Tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons were detected by immunohistochemistry. Success rates of PD models established by one-site and two-site injection techniques were examined. RESULTS： One rat died in the one-site injection group and four in the two-site injection group. Thus behavioral testing was performed on 31 rats. There was no significant difference in the success rate of PD model establishment between one-site injection and two-site injection groups [82% （14/17） vs. 86% （12/14）, P 〉 0.05]. The numbers of tyrosine hydroxylase -positive neurons in one-site injection and two-site injection groups were not significantly different （ P 〉 0.05）, but they were significantly lower than in the control group（P 〈 0.01 ）. CONCLUSION： A Parkinson＇s disease model can be established in rats via striatal one-site double injection.

APPLICATIONS OF HYPERGEOMETRIC SUMMATION THEOREMS OF KUMMER AND DIXON INVOLVING DOUBLE SERIES

Using series iteration techniques identities and apply each of these identities in we derive a number of general double series order to deduce several hypergeometric reduction formulas involving the Srivastava-Daoust double hypergeometric function. The results presented in this article are based essentially upon the hypergeometric summation theorems of Kummer and Dixon.

Impact of the Changes in Women’s Characteristics over Time on Antenatal Health Care Utilization in Egypt (2000-2008)

Objectives: This study empirically assesses the impact of the changes in women’s characteristics, empowerment, availability and quality of health services on woman’s decision to use antenatal care (ANC) and the frequency of that use during the period 2000-2008. Study Design: The study is a cross-sectional analytical study using 2000 and 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Surveys. Methods: The assessment of the studied impact is conducted using the Zero-inflated Negative Binomial Regression. In addition, Factor Analysis technique is used to construct some of the explanatory variables such as women’s empowerment, the availability and quality of health services indicators. Results: Utilization of antenatal health care services is greatly improved from 2000 to 2008. Availability of health services is one of the main determinants that affect the number of antenatal care visits in 2008. Wealth index and quality of health services play an important role in raising the level of antenatal care utilization in 2000 and 2008. However, the impact of the terminated pregnancy on receiving ANC increased over time. Conclusions: Further research of the determinants of antenatal health care utilization is needed, using more updated measures of women’s empowerment, availability and quality of health services. In order to improve the provision of antenatal health care services, it is important to understand barriers to antenatal health care utilization. Therefore, it is advisable to collect information from women about the reasons for not receiving antenatal care.

Women＇s Cooperatives Contributions to Local Region Economy： Seferihisar Agricultural Cooperative Development Model-Turkey

The cooperative movement has played a very important role in the social and economic development of all countries since 19th eentury＇s second half. Cooperatives provide health, housing, and banking services; they promote education and gender equality; they protect the environment and workers＇ rights. According to 2014＇s data, the total number of cooperatives is 79,486 in Turkey, while the total number of partners of cooperatives is approximately 7.8 million. The research＇s sample group ＂Hidirlik Agricultural Development Cooperative＂ was founded by the wife of the Seferihisar＇s mayor and six women. It has been a subject of curiousity that the contributions of the cooperative have developed the economy of the region since 2010. Therefore, various questions asked to the president and members of the cooperative, and significant results were obtained. In this research ＂Interview technique＂ was used. The fact that within the boundaries of local governments, the establishment of ＂women＇s cooperatives＂ and their active management can be supported with 10 basic criteria for the regional and national development can be predicted. These dimensions： ecological balance and sensitivity, the revival of the tourism sector, the mobility of logistics activities, new investments and increase of land value, the increase of women employment, the increase of healthy living standards, increase of competitiveness and trade earnings, the creation of new brands, widespread of the agricultural sector, and the increase of social and educational level of women. The similiar implementation of ＂Seferihisar Women＇s Cooperatives Model＂ in the research is considered form an important enterprenurship model not only in Turkey but also for all countries.

Women with overweight, mixed hyperlipidemia, intolerance to glucose and diastolic hypertension

Primarily healthy women who attended a practice of General Medicine were examined and coded data were evaluated using two statistical methods (n = 248, aged 36 ± 14 years). It was found that participants with LDL-related (mixed) hyperlipidemia showed higher blood pressure, a higher proportion of alcohol problems and/or smoking compared to normolipidemic women (p ≤ 0.05). These hyperlipidemic women who reported alcohol problems and/or smoking more often showed proteinuria and/or hematuria, rise of LDL/HDL, critical fasting blood glucose and lower HDL-cholesterol compared to hyperlipidemic women reporting healthy lifestyle (p ≤ 0.05). Likewise, high triglycerides were associated with rise of blood pressure and intolerance to glucose (p ≤ 0.05) and also with elevated total cholesterol. Alcohol-related hypertriglyceridemia overlapped with diastolic hypertension, rise of body weight and urine pathology, lowering of HDL-cholesterol and critical fasting blood glucose. The motivating message was that women with mixed hyperlipidemia and healthy lifestyle had functionally renal endothelium and healthy HDL-related baseline measures. Altogether, LDL-related hyperlipidemia and/or high triglycerides were correlated with diastolic hypertension whereby critical alcohol consumption declined renal endothelium and lowered HDL-cholesterol implicating baseline strategies to neutralize early risk factors.

Women’s Motivation and Associated Factors for Herbal Medicine Use during Pregnancy and Childbirth: A Systematic Review

Background: Herbal medicines use has prevailed over the past decades in both low-middle-income and high-income countries over the years. The use among women has increased with increased risks of ill-health. There is extensive literature on herbal medicine use among women in pre/pregnancy, labour, and the postpartum periods. Therefore, this study aimed to understand women’s purposes, experiences, and motivation for using herbal medicines during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, and the experiences associated with the use. Methods: Four critical databases were predetermined and searched: CINAHL, Medline, Web of Science, and EMBASE. These databases were chosen for their comprehensiveness and relevance to the review aims. We considered peer-reviewed published articles from January 2000 to December 2018. We chose these databases because we found that they are dominant in the medical and healthcare-related literature. All references were pooled to Endnote reference management software for screening. Quality appraisal of articles was conducted using the Mixed-Method Assessment Tool (MMAT). Content analysis approach was used to extra the data from the articles. Globally, twenty-one articles met the inclusion criteria, and thus, formed the dataset for this review. Results: Most articles (n = 10, 47.6%) reported solely HM uses on only pregnancy whiles the rest evaluated HM uses in labour, pre-pregnancy, and the postpartum periods. The results have shown that the majority of women received information about HM from friends, family, the “black markets,” and drug outlets. Overall, the results were presented in seven broad themes: 1) sociodemographic characteristics of HM users, 2) perceived threat of health problem, 3) sources and quality of the information received, 4) susceptibility to health complications, 5) potential limitations to the use of HM, 6) the motivation for HM utilization, 7) concerns on the combined use of herbal and allopathic medicines. Conclusion: The study recommends the further research into the toxicity of herbal products, to ensure that accurate information can be provided to women before use.

The Linguistic Means of Representing Women in the Doukhobor Russian Psalms

This paper analyzes the language employed in the representations of women in Doukhobor Russian ritual texts called ＂ncanMbf＇ （psalms） from the viewpoint of linguistic text analysis performed in the Russian tradition of folklore stylistics. While addressing the representations of Biblical female characters, such as the Holy Virgin Mary Magdalene, the Heavenly Bride, and the Whore of Babylon, along with the portrayals of Doukhobor and other women, the paper identifies stylistic features in their textual descriptions. The study establishes connections between Doukhobor texts and Russian folklore and liturgical tradition. The paper strives to identify the place of Doukhobor psalms as an integral part of the Russian literary and folklore heritage

Nonsequential double ionization of nonaligned diatomic molecules N_2 and O_2

Nonsequential double ionization （NSDI） processes of nonaligned diatomic molecules N2 and O2 are studied using the S-matrix theory. Our results show that the NSDI process significantly depends on the molecular symmetry and structure. The ratio of NSDI rate to single ionization rate as a function of the field intensity is obtained. It is found that N2 behaves closely with its companion atom Ar in the ratios over the entire intensity range, while O2 exhibits an obvious suppression effect, which is qualitatively consistent with the experiment.

The Singularities of Gravitational Fields of Static Thin Loop and Double Spheres Reveal the Impossibility of Singularity Black Holes

In the classical Newtonian mechanics, the gravity fields of static thin loop and double spheres are two simple but foundational problems. However, in the Einstein’s theory of gravity, they are not simple. In fact, we do not know their solutions up to now. Based on the coordinate transformations of the Kerr and the Kerr-Newman solutions of the Einstein’s equation of gravity field with axial symmetry, the gravity fields of static thin loop and double spheres are obtained. The results indicate that, no matter how much the mass and density are, there are singularities at the central point of thin loop and the contact point of double spheres. What is more, the singularities are completely exposed in vacuum. Space near the surfaces of thin loop and spheres are highly curved, although the gravity fields are very weak. These results are inconsistent with practical experience and completely impossible. By reasonable analogy, black holes with singularity in cosmology and astrophysics are something illusive. Caused by the mathematical description of curved space-time, they do not exist in real world actually. If there are black holes in the universe, they can only be the types of the Newtonian black holes without singularities, rather than the Einstein’s singularity black holes. In order to escape the puzzle of singularity thoroughly, the description of gravity should return to the traditional form of dynamics in flat space. The renormalization of gravity and the unified description of four basic interactions may be possible only based on the frame of flat space-time. Otherwise, theses problems can not be solved forever. Physicists should have a clear understanding about this problem.