More Like this

1. Does Parental Migration During Childhood Affect Children's Lifetime Educational Attainment? Evidence From Mexico

   https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-9411336  

   Wassink, Joshua Thomas ; Viera, Janelle Ashley ( September 2021 , Demography)

   Abstract Existing scholarship reveals important and competing influences of parental migration on children's educational trajectories. On the one hand, in the short term, left-behind children commonly take on additional housework and sometimes place less emphasis on education if they aspire to follow in their parents' migratory footsteps. On the other hand, parental migration often leads to monetary transfers (remittances), which reduces financial pressure on sending households and can strengthen educational aspirations among children left behind. Because previous studies examined these effects on children still completing their educations, the cumulative impact of parental migration on children's educational attainment remains uncertain. In this study, we use retrospective life history data from the Mexican Migration Project to link parental migrations occurring during childhood with children's educational attainment measured in adulthood. Using a novel counterfactual approach, we find that parental migration during childhood is associated with increased years of schooling and higher probabilities of completing lower-secondary school, entering upper-secondary school, and completing upper-secondary school. These associations were strongest among children whose parents did not complete primary school and those living in rural areas. Results from a placebo test suggest that these positive associations cannot be attributed to unobserved household characteristics related to parental migration,more »which supports a causal interpretation of our main findings. Thus, our analysis suggests that, on average, and particularly among more-disadvantaged households, the long-term educational benefits associated with parental migration outweigh short-term disruptions and strain associated with parental absence.« less
2. Ecological Analyses of Mycobacteria in Showerhead Biofilms and Their Relevance to Human Health

   https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01614-18  

   Gebert, Matthew J. ; Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel ; Oliverio, Angela M. ; Webster, Tara M. ; Nichols, Lauren M. ; Honda, Jennifer R. ; Chan, Edward D. ; Adjemian, Jennifer ; Dunn, Robert R. ; Fierer, Noah ; et al ( November 2018 , mBio)

   ABSTRACT Bacteria within the genus Mycobacterium can be abundant in showerheads, and the inhalation of aerosolized mycobacteria while showering has been implicated as a mode of transmission in nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung infections. Despite their importance, the diversity, distributions, and environmental predictors of showerhead-associated mycobacteria remain largely unresolved. To address these knowledge gaps, we worked with citizen scientists to collect showerhead biofilm samples and associated water chemistry data from 656 households located across the United States and Europe. Our cultivation-independent analyses revealed that the genus Mycobacterium was consistently the most abundant genus of bacteria detected in residential showerheads, and yet mycobacterial diversity and abundances were highly variable. Mycobacteria were far more abundant, on average, in showerheads receiving municipal water than in those receiving well water and in U.S. households than in European households, patterns that are likely driven by differences in the use of chlorine disinfectants. Moreover, we found that water source, water chemistry, and household location also influenced the prevalence of specific mycobacterial lineages detected in showerheads. We identified geographic regions within the United States where showerheads have particularly high abundances of potentially pathogenic lineages of mycobacteria, and these “hot spots” generally overlapped those regions where NTM lung diseasemore »is most prevalent. Together, these results emphasize the public health relevance of mycobacteria in showerhead biofilms. They further demonstrate that mycobacterial distributions in showerhead biofilms are often predictable from household location and water chemistry, knowledge that advances our understanding of NTM transmission dynamics and the development of strategies to reduce exposures to these emerging pathogens. IMPORTANCE Bacteria thrive in showerheads and throughout household water distribution systems. While most of these bacteria are innocuous, some are potential pathogens, including members of the genus Mycobacterium that can cause nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung infection, an increasing threat to public health. We found that showerheads in households across the United States and Europe often harbor abundant mycobacterial communities that vary in composition depending on geographic location, water chemistry, and water source, with households receiving water treated with chlorine disinfectants having particularly high abundances of certain mycobacteria. The regions in the United States where NTM lung infections are most common were the same regions where pathogenic mycobacteria were most prevalent in showerheads, highlighting the important role of showerheads in the transmission of NTM infections.« less
3. Applying machine learning to social datasets: a study of migration in southwestern Bangladesh using random forests

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01915-1  

   Best, Kelsea ; Gilligan, Jonathan ; Baroud, Hiba ; Carrico, Amanda ; Donato, Katharine ; Mallick, Bishawjit ( March 2022 , Regional Environmental Change)

   As researchers collect large amounts of data in the social sciences through household surveys, challenges may arise in how best to analyze such datasets, especially where motivating theories are unclear or conflicting. New analytical methods may be necessary to extract information from these datasets. Machine learning techniques are promising methods for identifying patterns in large datasets, but have not yet been widely used to identify important variables in social surveys with many questions. To demonstrate the potential of machine learning to analyze large social datasets, we apply machine learning techniques to the study of migration in Bangladesh. The complexity of migration decisions makes them suitable for analysis with machine learning techniques, which enable pattern identification in large datasets with many covariates. In this paper, we apply random forest methods to analyzing a large survey which captures approximately 2000 variables from approximately 1700 households in southwestern Bangladesh. Our analysis ranked the covariates in the dataset in terms of their predictive power for migration decisions. The results identified the most important covariates, but there exists a tradeoff between predictive ability and interpretability. To address this tradeoff, random forests and other machine learning algorithms may be especially useful in combination with moremore »traditional regression methods. To develop insights into how the important variables identified by the random forest algorithm impact migration, we performed a survival analysis of household time to first migration. With this combined analysis, we found that variables related to wealth and household composition are important predictors of migration. Such multi-methods approaches may help to shed light on factors contributing to migration and non-migration.

   « less
4. Acquisition of the counting principles during the subset-knower stages: Insights from children's errors

   https://doi.org/13219  

   Cheung, Pierina ; Toomey, Mary ; Jiang, Yahao Harry ; Stoop, Tawni B. ; Shusterman, Anna ( July 2022 , Developmental science)

   Studies on children's understanding of counting examine when and how children acquire the cardinal principle: the idea that the last word in a counted set reflects the cardinal value of the set. Using Wynn's (1990) Give-N Task, researchers classify children who can count to generate large sets as having acquired the cardinal principle (cardinal-principle-knowers) and those who cannot as lacking knowledge of it (subset-knowers). However, recent studies have provided a more nuanced view of number word acquisition. Here, we explore this view by examining the developmental progression of the counting principles with an aim to elucidate the gradual elements that lead to children successfully generating sets and being classified as CP-knowers on the Give-N Task. Specifically, we test the claim that subset-knowers lack cardinal principle knowledge by separating children's understanding of the cardinal principle from their ability to apply and implement counting procedures. We also ask when knowledge of Gelman & Gallistel's (1978) other how-to-count principles emerge in development. We analyzed how often children violated the three how-to-count principles in a secondary analysis of Give-N data (N = 86). We found that children already have knowledge of the cardinal principle prior to becoming CP-knowers, and that understanding of the stable-ordermore »and word-object correspondence principles likely emerged earlier. These results suggest that gradual development may best characterize children's acquisition of the counting principles and that learning to coordinate all three principles represents an additional step beyond learning them individually.« less
5. Health impacts of a randomized biomass cookstove intervention in northern Ghana

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12164-y  

   Abdo, Mona ; Kanyomse, Ernest ; Alirigia, Rex ; Coffey, Evan R. ; Piedrahita, Ricardo ; Diaz-Sanchez, David ; Hagar, Yolanda ; Naumenko, Daniel J. ; Wiedinmyer, Christine ; Hannigan, Michael P. ; et al ( December 2021 , BMC Public Health)

   Household air pollution (HAP) from cooking with solid fuels has adverse health effects. REACCTING (Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana) was a randomized cookstove intervention study that aimed to determine the effects of two types of “improved” biomass cookstoves on health using self-reported health symptoms and biomarkers of systemic inflammation from dried blood spots for female adult cooks and children, and anthropometric growth measures for children only.

   Two hundred rural households were randomized into four different cookstove groups. Surveys and health measurements were conducted at four time points over a two-year period. Chi-square tests were conducted to determine differences in self-reported health outcomes. Linear mixed models were used to assess the effect of the stoves on inflammation biomarkers in adults and children, and to assess the z-score deviance for the anthropometric data for children.

   We find some evidence that two biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation, serum amyloid A and C-reactive protein, decreased among adult primary cooks in the intervention groups relative to the control group. We do not find detectable impacts for any of the anthropometry variables or self-reported health.

   Overall, we conclude that the REACCTING intervention did not substantially improve themore »health outcomes examined here, likely due to continued use of traditional stoves, lack of evidence of particulate matter emissions reductions from “improved” stoves, and mixed results for HAP exposure reductions.

   ClinicalTrials.gov(National Institutes of Health); Trial Registration Number:NCT04633135; Date of Registration: 11 November 2020 – Retrospectively registered.

   URL:https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04633135?term=NCT04633135&draw=2&rank=1

   « less