Microplastic pollution is a growing environmental concern with an unknown impact on health, particularly as it relates to maternal, neonatal and offspring development. This scoping review maps the available evidence on the effects of microplastics on pregnancy, neonatal, offspring and tissue outcomes. Microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) have been identified in various human tissues, from amniotic fluid to uterine and placental tissue. Emerging evidence shows that MPs and NPs can cause inflammatory changes and dysfunction in multiple organs, including the intestines, liver, and gonads. A total of 806 studies were identified and imported for screening, of which 348 were eliminated after deduplication. Out of 458 abstracts, 122 abstracts moved forward into full-text review. Following the application of exclusion criteria, 53 studies underwent extraction. These studies were extracted for the following outcomes: pregnancy (5), placental (13), embryogenesis (5), fetal tissue (19), offspring (14) and neonatal outcomes (9). Broadly, the most common outcomes included changes in fetal development and birth weight, disturbances in metabolism and signaling pathways, and differences in gene expression in MP-NP exposed groups compared to control groups. Further research amongst human participants should be conducted to determine if MP-NP exposure has significant clinical effects on pregnancy and fetal outcomes.
In the United States, superintendents and school board members serve an important role in the local implementation and enactment of policies in schools. Recently, these roles have received increased attention, both in media and in research, due to a nationwide trend of increased partisanship and focus on nationalized issues. However, conducting studies of members of the politically elite can be challenging. This mixed-methods descriptive case study investigates the accessibility and response patterns of superintendents and school board members in Tennessee through a survey of policy perspectives administered in Spring 2023. Overall, superintendents were more accessible and more willing to begin the survey; however, they were also more likely to end the survey or skip potentially contentious questions once the survey required respondents to share policy perspectives.
Objective This study explores the parenting experiences of transnational parents from three English-speaking Caribbean countries: Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.Background While transnational parenting has been well studied in other contexts, research on Caribbean parents remains limited, underscoring the need for further exploration into the experiences of these families.Method Ten parents (six mothers and four fathers) participated in the study; all of whom self-identified as immigrants from the Black English-speaking Caribbean. Participants had migrated to the United States or Canada, leaving one or more children behind in their home country. Parents were recruited via word of mouth and publicly accessible Caribbean community groups on social media. Semistructured interviews were video-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed.Results We derived six themes: (a) reliance on family caregivers, (b) communication and connection, (c) commitment to education, (d) financial support and resource management, (e) emotional distress, and (f) joint parenting roles and family conflicts.Conclusion These findings highlight the emotional, financial, and family relationship stressors faced by Caribbean transnational mothers and fathers, as well as their resilience and adaptive strategies in long-distance parenting.Implications The study underscores the need for support systems to strengthen parent-child relationships, improve financial transparency, and assist families in managing transnational caregiving dynamics. These insights are particularly valuable for family scholars and practitioners working with Caribbean families, informing strategies to better support transnational parenting dynamics.
Assessing support for political violence in the United States remains a major point of focus. However, generating reliable population-level estimates of support for political violence has proven difficult. In this study, we fielded a split-ballot survey experiment comparing two measures of support for political violence. Specifically, we examine support for abstract and unspecified forms of political violence, as well as the willingness to engage in concrete actions, such as damaging property, to support political goals. As expected, we find greater support for abstract political violence than for a personal willingness to engage in political violence. In our multivariable analyses, we found that younger people were more likely to endorse both expressions of political violence. Regarding political ideology and party identification, we found a complex set of results. While the results related to ideology suggest people who identify as "very liberal" were more likely to endorse both expressions of political violence, party identification showed that independents, not Democrats or Republicans, were more likely to endorse both expressions of political violence. As such, we argue that alienation from conventional political parties is an important feature that deserves more attention.
To facilitate its goal of fostering department transformation, the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) organizes some of its work into five geographic regions and leverages the expertise of the PULSE Fellows in each region. This article examines how these Regional Networks have driven department-level changes through outreach activities, use of the PULSE Rubrics as a diagnostic tool to help departments to advance the Vision and Change recommendations, and implementation of the PULSE framework to address local needs and challenges. We present impact data through Regional Network activities and identify commonalities in successes and challenges across all the geographic regions. Through reports from the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, and Midwest Great Plains, we highlight each Regional Network’s accomplishments in influencing the adoption of PULSE strategies to implement the Vision and Change recommendations to transform departments.
