The cryopreservation of murine ovarian tissue and its transplantation can be a promising technique for the preservation of fertility and an alternative for the future reconstitution of scientific valuable strains of mice. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to describe the entire surgical procedure for ovariectomy and dorsal subcutaneous autotransplantation in mice, and also some data about the efficiency of this procedure. Female C57Bl/6J mice (n = 18) were anaesthetised and bilaterally ovariectomized. After surgery, ovaries were autotransplanted in small subcutaneous pouches in the dorsal region of the forelimbs. The animals were inspected daily and, 23 days after transplantation, euthanasia and recovery of ovarian tissues were performed. Postoperative recovery, oestrous cyclicity, and folliculogenesis progression were evaluated. At 23 days after transplantation, the recovery of the ovaries was feasible, all classes (primordial to antral) of follicles were observed. Additionally, satisfactory efficiency rates were obtained, with 100% of anaesthesia survival rate, survival, graft recovery, folliculogenesis progression and oestrous cyclicity. In general, this short article describes ovarian ectopic autologous transplantation as an effective technique for maintaining rodent oogenesis and endocrine ovarian function. Even more broadly, we can still assume that the application of this technique may reduce the number of breeding matrices and experimental animals in the near future.

In 2019, while conducting a survey of the Carabamba River valley (ca. 150–3,325 m asl) in northern Peru, we identified and surveyed a group of five unreported geoglyphs. Their location and iconography suggest that they date from the Formative period (1800–200 BC) and that they were possibly associated with a form of fertility ritual.

Coral bleaching is associated with large income shocks and a substantial decrease in protein consumption among the affected fishery households in Indonesia [Chaijaroen (2019) Long-lasting income shocks and adaptations: evidence from coral bleaching in Indonesia. Journal of Development Economics 136, 119–136]. According to the health and economics literature, early childhood exposures to shocks such as those from coral bleaching can have long-lasting effects on health, schooling, and other later-life outcomes. This paper explores how the mass coral bleaching in 1998 affected household decisions on fertility and child development. Using the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) and a triple differences approach, results from 2000 suggest an increase in fertility and an increased likelihood of severe childhood stunting among the affected households. For comparison, rainfall shocks are associated with a decrease in fertility and smaller adverse effects on child health and schooling outcomes. This study suggests that the effects of coral bleaching might have been underestimated, and our findings yield more targeted policy recommendations on climate shock mitigation.

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is best known for its role in bacteria-produced lipopolysaccharide recognition. Regarding female reproduction, TLR4 is expressed by murine cumulus cells and participates in ovulation and in cumulus–oocyte complex (COC) expansion, maternal–fetal interaction and preterm labour. Despite these facts, the role of TLR4 in ovarian physiology is not fully understood. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of TLR4 genetic ablation on mice folliculogenesis and female fertility, through analysis of reproductive crosses, ovarian responsiveness and follicular quantification in TLR4−/− (n = 94) and C57BL/6 mice [wild type (WT), n = 102]. TLR4-deficient pairs showed a reduced number of pups per litter (P = 0.037) compared with WT. TLR4−/− mice presented more primordial, primary, secondary and antral follicles (P < 0.001), however there was no difference in estrous cyclicity (P > 0.05). A lower (P = 0.006) number of COC was recovered from TLR4−/− mice oviducts after superovulation, and in heterozygous pairs, TLR4−/− females also showed a reduction in the pregnancy rate and in the number of fetuses per uterus (P = 0.007) when compared with WT. Altogether, these data suggest that TLR4 plays a role in the regulation of murine folliculogenesis and in determining ovarian endowment. TLR4 deficiency may affect ovulation and pregnancy rates, potentially decreasing fertility, therefore the potential side effects of its blockade have to be carefully investigated.

In the present study, the influence of three sex ratios (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3; female:male) of the mirid Engytatus varians (Distant) (Hemiptera) on different biological parameters and on its offspring was evaluated. The prey preference of different developmental stages of this predator for different nymphal instars (N) of Bactericera cockerelli (Sulcer) (Hemiptera: Triozidae) was also evaluated. The fertility was significantly higher (24 nymphs/female) in the 1:3 sex ratio than in the 1:1 and 1:2 sex ratios (14 and 16 nymphs/female, respectively). The females in the 1:1 and 1:2 sex ratios lived 1.14 and 1.43 days more (27 and 28 days, respectively) than those in the 1:3 sex ratio (26 days). The nymphs derived from the females of the three sex ratios (first filial generation, F1) had five instars and a duration of 17 or 18 days. The ratio of the F1 generation females was not affected by the sex ratio of their parents. In choice tests, independent of whether the preys were placed on a single or multiple tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) leaflets, the consumption of females and males and N3, N4, and N5 nymphs of E. varians on B. cockerelli, generally showed the order of N2>N3>N4>N5. In conclusion, the findings revealed in this study can help to improve the rearing methodology for increasing populations of E. varians. In addition, they can serve as a guideline for releasing this predator in times when there is an abundance of early instar nymphs of B. cockerelli.

Improving knowledge about African historical demography is essential to addressing current population trends and achieving deeper understanding of social, economic, and political change in the past and present. I use census and parish register data from Tanganyika to address the origins of twentieth-century population growth, to describe how major changes in fertility and child mortality began in the 1940s, and to emphasise the significance of the large rise in fertility between the 1940s and 1970s. Through this work and my wider survey of parish registers in Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, I consider the relationships between power, evidence, and meaning in these data sources. Alongside the macro gaps in Africa's population history are significant microsilences — lacunae in the sources and data which reflect the hegemonic structures within which they were produced. I suggest a moral demography approach to their analysis, borrowing from the reflexive and dialectic method found in studies of moral economy.

It has been widely perceived in South Korea that the rise in a woman's income is negative for her childbirth. This study tries to verify the hypothesis empirically because the Korean government initiated the basic plan for low fertility in 2006 and has constantly strengthened work–family balance policy since then. Our analysis using a household annual data over 18 years, 1999–2016, indicates that married women's economic power relates positively to childbirth for the period after 2006. We also find that the higher birth likelihood among top income quartile women is largely attributed to their better accessibility to maternity protection benefits. These findings imply that the government's efforts to support work–family balance have been successful to a certain extent. However, the benefits remain limited only to high-income women.

Advanced economies undergo three transitions during their development: (1) transition from a rural to an urban economy, (2) transition from low-income growth to high-income growth, (3) transition from high fertility and mortality rates to low modern levels. The timings of these transitions are correlated in the historical development of most advanced economies. I consider a nonlinear model of endogenous long-run economic and demographic change, in which child quantity-quality substitution is driven by declining child mortality. Because the model captures the interactions between all three transitions, it is able to explain three additional empirical patterns: a declining urban-rural wage gap, a declining rural-urban family size ratio, and most surprisingly, that early urbanization slows development. This third prediction distinguishes the model from other theories of long-run growth, and I document evidence for it in cross-country data.

Dicliptera verticillata is a medicinal plant traditionally used in western Cameroon to cure female infertility. This experiment was designed to assess the effects of the aqueous extract of Dicliptera verticillata (AEDv) on fertility and gestation in female rats. Oral increasing doses of AEDv were administered to immature female rats over 20 d. After this time, some animals were mated with fertile males and some fertility parameters were assayed; the other animals were euthanized for preliminary toxicity parameters analysis. The effects of AEDv on the different stages of gestation were assayed on selected animals previously controlled for estrous cycle regularity and mated. AEDv led to an increase in serum, uterine and ovarian proteins as well as in ovarian and uterine weights (P < 0.05) in immature female rats. Hepatic proteins significantly decreased (P < 0.01) in high dose-treated animals (50 and 100 mg/kg) compared with controls. The number of implantation sites and the fertility rate were significantly lower (P < 0.05), while the antifertility activity increased significantly (P < 0.05) in treated rats compared with controls. When administered from the 1st to the 5th day of pregnancy, AEDv led to a decrease of more than 60% in the implantation rate in high dose-treated rats (50, 100, and 400 mg/kg). From the 6th to the 9th day, the implantation, gestation rates and the number of fetuses decreased significantly in all treated groups. From the 11th to the 20th day, a 50% resorption and decrease in gestation rate were reported in 50 mg/kg dose-treated animals. AEDv possesses weak contraceptive and abortifacient effects during pregnancy.

This paper argues that the expectation of having to provide care for aging parents in the future may be a major factor contributing to the current low fertility rate in Japan. Using data from the 1998 and 2008 National Family Research of Japan (NFRJ) surveys and a Poisson-logit hurdle model, this paper examines whether the expectation of having to look after parents in the future affects a couple's current family planning. The first-stage model of a couple's family planning decision is a logit model which examines the decision of whether or not to have any children, and then in the second stage a Poisson model is applied to explain the number of children a couple has conditional on the couple having at least one child. The empirical evidence presented suggests that there are strong generational effects, and that for the post-war cohort, an increase in the probability of having to look after a parent increases the probability of a couple being childless.

We study the link between residential segregation and fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighborhoods. Our results show that Roma in less-segregated areas tend to have significantly fewer children (around 0.8). Most of the difference arises from Roma in less-segregated areas waiting substantially more after having a boy than their counterparts in more-segregated areas. We exploit variation in the share of Serbian sounding first names to provide evidence that a mechanism at play is a shift in preferences toward lower fertility and sons rather than daughters induced by a higher exposure to the Serbian majority culture.

On average, childless women observed by the Panel Study of Income Dynamics report that they intend to have more children than they actually have. A collection of intentions that record only whether respondents intend to have another child can more accurately predict the number of children they have. Errors in the formation of intentions are not required to explain this finding. Rather, if intentions record a survey respondent's most likely predicted number of children, then the average of these intentions does not necessarily equal average actual fertility, even if intentions are formed using rational expectations.

The reproductive performances of livestock play an essential role in the economic management of the farm. The improvement of semen quantity and quality through the use of food supplements that lack substances which are forbidden in animal feeding, or that may have detrimental effects, is an important goal. Maca (Lepidium meyenii) is a plant that has been used for centuries in the Andes for nutrition and fertility enhancement in humans and animals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of food supplementation of stallions with maca during the breeding season on spermatozoa parameters such as DNA fragmentation and shape, which are two predictive indexes of spermatozoa functionality. For this purpose, ejaculate volume, semen gel-free volume, sperm concentration and motility, total sperm count, sperm DNA fragmentation and sperm head parameters (length, width, perimeter, area, shape factor, roughness) were measured in four stallions. Maca food supplementation in stallions during breeding reduced the percentage of spermatozoa with fragmented DNA, increased significantly sperm concentration and exerted an elongation of the spermatozoa head, a condition that is believed to improve spermatozoa functionality, suggesting that food supplementation of maca could be useful in horse breeding during the breeding season.