Increasing pressure on US men for income in order to find a spouse.

In contemporary societies, social status - especially income - is one of the most important determinants of ever marrying among men. Using U.S. census data, we estimated the importance of income for ever marrying among men and women, analyzing birth cohorts from 1890 to 1973. We examined individuals between the ages of 45 and 55, a total of 3.5 million men and 3.6 million women. We find that for men, the importance of income in predicting ever being married increased steadily over time. Income predicted only 2.5% of the variance in ever marrying for those born in 1890-1910, but about 20% for the 1973 cohort. For women, the opposite is true: the higher a woman's income among those born between 1890 and 1910, the lower her odds of ever being married, explaining 6% of the variance, whereas today a woman's income no longer plays a role in ever being married. Thus, our results provide evidence that income may represent a very recent selection pressure on men in the US, a pressure that has become increasingly stronger over time in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Facial attractiveness is only weakly linked to genome-wide heterozygosity.

Introduction: It has been frequently suggested that overall genomic heterozygosity and, particularly, heterozygosity of loci on the so-called major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which is responsible for the recognition of foreign substances/ pathogens and the recognition of self and non-self, is associated with better health and better resistance to infections and parasites. It has further been speculated that such a potentially beneficial heterozygosity can be detected through body odor and facial attractiveness. Methods: On the basis of genome wide SNP data (713,014 SNPs) of participants from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we therefore investigated whether homozygosity either on the MHC (measured as inbreeding coefficient) or genome-wide (measured as runs of homozygosity and inbreeding coefficient) is associated with rated facial attractiveness. Results: Although we found that the genome-wide average length of homozygous segments and the genome-wide inbreeding coefficient are significantly negatively associated with some measures of facial attractiveness, if corrected for multiple testing, any significant association was no longer formally significant after correction. In addition, the variance in facial attractiveness explained by the genome wide homozygosity is very low (<0.15%). We did not find any significant association between the inbreeding coefficient on the MHC and facial attractiveness. Discussion: We only find a weak association of genome- wide heterozygosity and facial attractiveness.

A rapid and convenient sample preparation method for the analysis of cannabinoids in oral fluid samples.

Cannabis is the world's most used illegal drug. The main psychoactive component of cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). To aid the identification of cannabis-impaired individuals, a simple but effective workflow for reliable quantification of THC and its metabolites in oral fluid samples collected with the Greiner Bio-One Saliva Collection System is presented. Sampling involves rinsing the oral cavity with an extraction solution containing a citrate buffer stimulating salivary flow. Sample processing targeted the cannabinoid fraction interacting with proteins and other insoluble constituents that can be separated by centrifugation. Approximately 50% of the total amount of cannabinoids included in the oral fluid was recovered from the obtained pellet by extraction with acetonitrile. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used for cannabinoid quantification. Fitness of the developed workflow for application in forensic and clinical cannabis testing was demonstrated by evaluating multiple performance parameters, including selectivity, linearity, limits of quantification (LOQs), accuracy, precision, matrix effects, extraction recoveries, process efficiencies and stability. Furthermore, sensitivity and specificity of the developed oral fluid-based cannabis test was demonstrated by analysing 195 samples collected either from opioid addicts or persons suspected of driving under the influence of drugs. The accuracy of identifying a person with the presence of THC in blood was found to be 97.9%.

Rapid quality control of black truffles using Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry and Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.

This work is the first to describe the application of Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry for rapid and simple quality control of black truffles. Multivariate analyses (PCA and LDA) of mass spectra provided highly efficient models for the discrimination of four truffle species, namely Tuber melanosporumVittad., Tuber aestivumVittad., Tuber uncinatumChatin and Tuber indicum Cooke etMassee. Full-cross validations showed prediction accuracies up to 99%. Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry was used as a reference method and the results of both methods were compared to each other. Multivariate models of the chromatograms also showed excellent results with prediction accuracies of 100%. In a direct comparison of methods, Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry showed minimally lower prediction accuracies, but was significantly faster, more robust and easier to use, making it an excellent choice for rapid quality control of black truffles.

Rapid quantification of cannabidiol from oils by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry.

This work is the first to describe the use of Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) for the rapid quantification of cannabidiol (CBD) in CBD oils. For this study, self-prepared samples spiked with CBD in hemp seed oil as well as commercial CBD oils from the Austrian market with different CBD contents were analyzed. CBD concentrations were between 5 and 30% (m/m) for the spiked samples as well as between 5 and 15% (m/m) for the real samples. The performance of quantification by means of DART-MS was assessed against a validated liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method. The correlation of the quantification results of both methods was high with a correlation factor greater than 0.98 and a maximum bias of 9.8%. Furthermore, the relative standard deviation values of the DART-MS measurments were below the tolerable limit of 12%. These results demonstrate that quantification of CBD by DART-MS is reliable and hence suitable as a rapid and cost-effective alternative method for quality control of CBD content in CBD oils.

Marriage in the Melting Pot: An Evolutionary Approach to European Ancestry, Homogamy, and Fertility in the United States.

To understand marriage patterns, homogamy, and fertility of women of European ancestry in the United States from an evolutionary perspective, we investigated if a prevalence of ancestral homogamy exists, the factors influencing a female preference for an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, and if ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriages have an impact on fertility. Furthermore, we aim to determine the heritability of homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage behavior. We used the census data of 369,121 women in the United States married only once and aged between 46 and 60 years, provided by IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/). We used linear mixed models to determine the association between the probability of a homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage and the individual fertility of women. We aimed to estimate the heritability (genetics and parental environment) of marriage behavior using a linear mixed model. We found that ancestral heterogamous marriages are more frequent compared to homogamous marriages, but only if all ancestry groups are included. If ancestry is aggregated, homogamous marriages are more frequent compared to heterogamous marriages. Most of the variance (up to 27%) in inter-ancestry marriage and fertility (up to 12%) is explained by ancestry per se, followed by the ratio of individuals of a certain ancestral background in a county (∼6%), indicating a frequency depending selection into marriage: the more individuals of a certain ancestry live in a county, the lower is the tendency to marry someone of a different ancestral background. Furthermore, we found that about 12% (depending to some extent on the clustering) of the marriage behavior is heritable. Being in a homogamous marriage and the income of the spouse are both significantly positively associated with the number of children women have and the probability that women have at least one child, albeit explaining only a very low proportion of the overall variance. The most important factor (in terms of variance explained) for being in an ancestral homogamous vs. heterogamous marriage, for the number of children, and for childlessness is the ancestry of the women. Most children are born to women of Irish, French, and Norwegian ancestry (Irish X̄: 3.24, French X̄: 3.21, and Norwegian X̄: 3.18), the lowest number of children is to women of Latvian, Rumanian, and Russian ancestry (Latvian X̄: 2.26, Rumanian X̄: 2.19, and Russian X̄: 2.35). Albeit, we are not able to distinguish the genetic and social heritability on the basis of our data, only a small heritability for in-group vs. out-group marriage behavior is indicated (∼12% of variance explained).

Rapid differentiation and quality control of tobacco products using Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry and Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry.

This work is the first to describe the use of Direct Analysis in Real Time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) for the rapid and cost-effective quality control of cigars. Multivariate analyses (PCA and LDA) on mass spectra led to highly efficient models for the discrimination of tobacco products. In addition to the geographic origin of the cigars, different pretreatments of the tobacco leaves could also be determined. Cross-validations of the models yielded prediction accuracies up to 92.18%. All results were compared using LC-MS as reference method. Multivariate analyses of chromatograms also yielded powerful models with correctness scores up to 88.1%. However, the models generated with LC-MS were neither able to determine the geographic origin of the tobacco leaves nor different pretreatments. In addition to qualitative analysis, the nicotine content of tobacco leaves was also determined via both methods. While precise quantification was not possible with DART-MS, a correlation coefficient of >0.96 was achieved in direct comparison with LC-MS, which allows semi-quantitative statements about the nicotine content without any problems.

Fertility Outcomes, Heritability and Genomic Associations of In-Group Preference and In-Group Marriage.

Using data from the Midlife Development in the USA (MIDUS) sample (3070 men and 3182 women) and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS; 2240 men and 2346 women), we aimed to investigate whether religious, ethnic and racial in-group preferences as well as religious homogamy are associated with reproductive outcome in terms of number of children. Using data from the MIDUS twin sample, we further estimated the inherited genetic component of in-group attitudes. Additionally, we analyzed the association of ∼50 polygenic scores (PGSs) recently published for the WLS study and in-group attitudes as an indicator of potential pleiotropic effects. We found in both samples that, with one exception, religious though not other in-group attitudes are associated with a higher reproductive outcome. Also, religious homogamy is associated with higher average number of children. The inherited component of all in-group attitudes ranges from ∼21% to 45% (MIDUS twin sample). PGSs associated with religious behavior are significantly positively associated with religious in-group attitudes as well as family attitudes. Further associations are found with PGS on life satisfaction (work) and, negatively, with PGS for any sort of addiction (smoking, alcohol and cannabis use), indicating pleiotropy. We conclude that the positive association between religious in-group attitudes as well as religious homogamy and reproductive outcome may indicate selective forces on religious in-group behavior. As all investigated in-group attitudes, however, have a substantial inherited component, we further speculate that potential previous reproductive benefits of racial and ethnic in-group preferences, if they ever existed, might have been substituted by religious in-group preferences.

Ethnic Identity and Genome Wide Runs of Homozygosity.

It is long known that inbreeding increases the detrimental effects of recessive sequence variants in "Runs of Homozygosity" (ROHs). However, although the phenotypic association of ROH has been investigated for a variety of traits, the statistical power of the results often remains limited as a sufficiently high number of cases are available for only a restricted number of traits. In the present study, we aim to analyze the association of runs of homozygosity with the trait "in-group ethnic favoritism". This analysis assumes that if ethnic identity is important for an individual, that individual may tend to marry more frequently within their own group and therefore ROH are expected to increase. We hypothesize that an attitude preferring one's own ethnic group may be associated with a stronger tendency of inbreeding and, as a result, with more and longer ROHs. Accordingly, we investigated the association between the attitude to someone's own ethnicity and ROH, using the Wisconsin Longitudinal data (WLS, total N ~ 9000) as discovery data set and the Brisbane Twin data as replication data set (N ~ 8000). We find that both the number as well as the total length of homozygous segments are significantly positively associated with "in-group ethnic favoritism", independent of the method used for ROH calculation.

Factors affecting attitudes toward migrants-An evolutionary approach.

OBJECTIVE: To understand migration from an evolutionary perspective, this phenomenon has so far been mainly investigated in animal species. We therefore aim to investigate the potential evolutionary roots of attitudes toward migrants in humans. METHODS: We used data from the European Social Survey (n = 83 734), analyzing attitudes toward migrants by performing ordinal mixed models. RESULTS: We found that men have a more restrictive attitude toward migration than women, which increases with age and is stronger with a child in the household. Attitude toward migrants is also more skeptical if migrants have a different ethnicity and are from poorer countries. Increasing education and religiousness are associated with a more positive attitude toward migrants, particularly toward migrants of different ethnicity and from poorer countries. DISCUSSION: Although migration flows are a hallmark of the human species, previous findings suggest that (pre-)historic migration flows were at times accompanied by conflict and violence, while at the same time, they insured survival by allowing cultural exchange and the avoidance of inbreeding. Accordingly, we assume that contemporary attitudes toward migration are rooted in our evolutionary past. We discuss the respective behavioral patterns from an evolutionary perspective, arguing that both-a negative attitude as well as openness-make sense.

Monitoring drug consumption in Innsbruck during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown by wastewater analysis.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has developed into a serious pandemic with millions of cases diagnosed worldwide. To fight COVID-19 pandemic, over 100 countries instituted either a full or partial lockdown, affecting billions of people. In Tyrol, first lockdown measures were taken on 10 March 2020. On 16 March 2020, a curfew went into force which ended on 1 May 2020. On 19 March 2020, Tyrol as a whole was placed in quarantine which ended on 7 April 2020. The governmental actions helped reducing the spread of COVID-19 at the cost of significant effects on social life and behaviour. Accordingly, to provide a comprehensive picture of the population health status not only input from medical and biological sciences is required, but also from other sciences able to provide lifestyle information such as drug use. Herein, wastewater-based epidemiology was used for studying temporal trends of licit and illicit drug consumption during lockdown and quarantine in the area of the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck (174,000 inhabitants). On 35 days between 12 March 2020 and 15 April 2020, loads of 23 markers were monitored in wastewater. Loads determined on 292 days between March 2016 and January 2020 served as reference. During lockdown, changes in the consumption patterns of recreational drugs (i.e. cocaine, amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, methamphetamine, and alcohol) and pharmaceuticals for short-term application (i.e. acetaminophen, codeine, and trimethoprim) were detected. For illicit drugs and alcohol, it is very likely that observed changes were linked to the shutdown of the hospitality industry and event cancelation which led to a reduced demand of these compounds particularly on weekends. For the pharmaceuticals, further work will be necessary to clarify if the observed declines are indicators of improved population health or of some kind of restraining effect that reduced the number of consultations of medical doctors and pharmacies.

Effects of wife's and husband's income on wife's reproduction: an evolutionary perspective on human mating.

From an evolutionary perspective, for women mate choice may be of crucial importance particularly concerning resources needed for rearing children. In modern societies, however, resources in terms of income are often provided by both women and men. Nonetheless, the effects of a wife's and husband's socioeconomic status on the wife's reproduction have not been investigated on a broader level. We therefore aim to investigate the effects of wife's and husband's income on wife's number of children and her probability of remaining childless using census data from nine countries mainly in the developing world for a total of 782,147 women aged 45-54 years who currently live with a husband and their spouses. Overall, both wife's and husband's income are significantly negatively associated with wife's number of children. Only in Israel do we find a positive association between husband's income and wife's offspring number. A wife's probability of remaining childless, however, increases with increasing own, but decreases with increasing husband's income. We conclude that in this sample of nearly all developing countries, effects of husband's socioeconomic status on wife's reproduction are acting through childlessness.

Female Reproductive Performance and Maternal Birth Month: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Exploring Multiple Seasonal Mechanisms.

Globally, maternal birth season affects fertility later in life. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to comprehensively investigate the birth season and female fertility relationship. Using PubMed, we identified a set of 282 relevant fertility/birth season papers published between 1972 and 2018. We screened all 282 studies and removed 131 non-mammalian species studies on fertility and 122 studies that were on non-human mammals. Our meta-analysis focused on the remaining 29 human studies, including twelve human datasets from around the world (USA, Europe, Asia). The main outcome was change in female fertility as observed by maternal birth month and whether this change was correlated with either temperature or rainfall. We found that temperature was either strongly correlated or anti-correlated in studies, indicating that another factor closely tied to temperature may be the culprit exposure. We found that rainfall only increases fertility in higher altitude locations (New Zealand, Romania, and Northern Vietnam). This suggests the possibility of a combined or multi-factorial mechanism underlying the female fertility - birth season relationship. We discuss other environmental and sociological factors on the birth season - female fertility relationship. Future research should focus on the role of birth season and female fertility adjusting for additional factors that modulate female fertility as discussed in this comprehensive review.

Do birds of a feather flock together? Factors for religious heterogamy.

Social cohesion - particularly with regard to the integration of migrants - is primarily measured in terms of education, labour market participation, unemployment, income levels and poverty. When seen from a historical long-term perspective (considering the migrations of Homo sapiens in the past 300,000 years) admixture merged members of diverse groups and forged - in addition to social ties - 'strong biological ties' of kinship, proposing that religious heterogamy is a long-term layer of social cohesion. Accordingly, this study investigated, on the basis of more than 600,000 men and women aged 26-35 years from Austria 2001, Germany (West) 1987, Ireland 2011, Portugal 2011, Romania 2011 and Switzerland 2000, which demographic characteristics foster religious heterogamy, controlling for various confounding factors using linear mixed modelling. By far the most important factor explaining religious heterogamy was the share of adherents to an individual's religious group in their area of residence. It can be concluded that the rate of intermarriage declines with the increasing size of an individual's religious group in their area of residence. From a long-term perspective the lack of familial ties (and conjoint offspring) between religious groups could lead to a lack of social cohesion.

Political Attitude and Fertility: Is There a Selection for the Political Extreme?

There is growing evidence that human ideology as well as social and political attitudes also have a genetic basis. In case of some genetic predisposition of political attitude, an association with fertility would be a hint of potential selection on political ideology. We therefore investigated on the basis of men and women that have completed, respectively, almost completed reproduction, of three different data sets (the World Value Survey 1981-2014 covering a wide range of countries and developmental levels, n = 152,380, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe of 2005, n = 65,912, and the General Social Survey of the United States 1972-2014, n ∼ 6200) whether political attitude is associated with number of children. Overall, in the world wide survey, both extreme political attitudes, albeit more pronounced for right/conservative than for left/liberal attitude, are associated with higher average offspring number compared to intermediate attitudes. If countries are analyzed separately, however, the picture is inconsistent, and in most countries, the association is non-significant. In the European and the US-survey, only the political right is associated with above average number of children. The time series of US data from 1972 to 2014 shows that at least in the US-sample, this pattern emerged during the 1990s: in the 1970s and 1980s, also in the US-sample both political extremes had a reproductive advantage, which vanished for left wing individuals during the 1990s. From an evolutionary perspective, we are not able to draw final conclusions as the association between political attitude and reproduction varies across countries and time. Nonetheless, the overall pattern suggests that in human evolutionary history, both left and right political attitudes may have conveyed fitness benefits so that both attitudes have been kept in the population.

Evidence for a maximum "shelf-life" of oocytes in mammals suggests that human menopause may be an implication of meiotic arrest.

There is an ongoing debate why a trait like human menopause should have evolved. Adaptive explanations explain menopause with fitness benefits of ceasing reproduction, whereas non-adaptive explanations view it as an epiphenomenon. Here we present data in support of non-adaptive explanations of menopause suggesting a maximum shelf-life of oocytes. By analyzing the association between lifespan and age at reproductive senescence across 49 mammal species, we find that the positive association levels off in long lived species, indicating that the age at reproductive senescence has an upper limit. Only in baleen whales there seems to be no evidence for reproductive senescence. We suggest that apart from the baleen whales, the confinement of reproductive senescence in long-lived species may be the result of physiological constraints imposed by the long period of time oocytes remain inactive in an arrested phase of meiosis from their production in utero until ovulation. We therefore conclude that menopause may be an implication of the long duration of meiotic arrest caused by semelgametogenesis together with long lifespan.

MARRIAGE GAP IN CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS.

For modern Western societies with a regime of monogamy, it has recently been demonstrated that the socioeconomic status of men is positively associated with being or having been married. This study aims to compare marriage patterns (if a person has been married at least once) for cultures with a tradition of monogamy and polygyny. As no worldwide data on polygyny exist, religion was used as a proxy for monogamy (Christians) vs polygyny (Muslims). The analyses were based on 2000-2011 census data from 39 countries worldwide for 52,339,594 men and women, controlling for sex, sex ratio, age, education, migration within the last 5 years and employment. Overall, a higher proportion of Muslims were married compared with Christians, but the difference in the fraction of married men compared with married women at a certain age (the 'marriage gap') was much more pronounced in Muslims than in Christians, i.e. compared with Christians, a substantially higher proportion of Muslim women than men were married up to the age of approximately 31 years. As expected for a tradition of polygyny, the results indicate that the socioeconomic threshold for entering marriage is higher for Muslim than Christian men, and Muslim women in particular face a negative effect of socioeconomic status on the probability of ever being married. The large 'marriage gap' at a certain age in Muslim societies leads to high numbers of married women and unmarried young men, and may put such polygenic societies under pressure.

Mutual compensation of the effects of religious and ethnic homogamy on reproduction.

OBJECTIVES: Homogamy, mating based on similarity, has been demonstrated for a great variety of traits such as age, education, religion, and physical and psychological traits. Recently, pro-fertile effects of religious as well as educational homogamy have been reported. We investigate whether ethnic homogamy also has a pro-fertile effect and whether ethnic and religious homogamy interact in their putative effects on reproduction (in terms of average number of offspring). METHODS: We analyzed the association between ethnic as well as religious homogamy and woman's average number of offspring based on census data from ten countries provided by IPUMS international, encompassing a total of 1,485,433 married women aged 46-60 years (who have thus completed or almost completed reproduction) and their spouses. RESULTS: We find a clear pro-fertile but nonadditive effect of both ethnic and religious homogamy, which is most pronounced in the case of double homogamy. Our results further indicate that homogamy for one trait may compensate for heterogamy of the other, albeit countries differ regarding which trait compensates for the other. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that the interaction between ethnic homogamy, religious homogamy, and reproduction provides an interesting example for gene-culture co-evolution.

Living with own or husband's mother in the household is associated with lower number of children: a cross-cultural analysis.

It has been discussed in the literature that the presence of kin, particularly the presence of a women's own mother or her mother in law, may have fertility effects. We aimed to examine the effects of the presence of a woman's own or her husband's mother in the household on a woman's fertility in terms of number of children on a broad basis by analysing census data of over two million married women aged between 15 and 34 years from 14 countries worldwide. We find that with the exception of Iraq, across all countries, the majority of women live only with their spouse in the household. We further find that the presence of any mother in the household is invariably associated with a significantly lower number of children compared to women living only with their spouse. In addition, in most countries, a woman's number of children is lower if she lives with her own mother as compared to her husband's mother in the household. Number of children is nonlinearly associated with woman's age, the presence of any mother being related with an earlier start of childbearing but a shallower increase in number of children. We speculate that the presence of a mother in the household may slow down woman's reproduction, but also discuss alternative explanations.

Whole Transcriptome Screening Reveals Myelination Deficits in Dysplastic Human Temporal Neocortex.

Focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs) are local malformations of the human neocortex with strong epileptogenic potential. To investigate the underlying pathomechanisms, we performed a whole human transcriptome screening to compare the gene expression pattern of dysplastic versus nondysplastic temporal neocortex. Tissue obtained from FCD IIIa cases (mean age 20.5 years) who had undergone surgical treatment, due to intractable epilepsy, was compared with nondysplastic specimens (mean age 19.9 years) by means of Affymetrix arrays covering 28 869 genes. We found 211 differentially expressed genes (DEX) among which mainly genes important for oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination were downregulated in FCD IIIa. These findings were confirmed as functionally important by Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) analysis. The reduced expression of myelin-associated transcripts was confirmed for FCD Ia, IIa, and IIIa by real-time RT-qPCR. In addition, we found that the density of myelin basic protein mRNA-expressing oligodendrocytes and of 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase-positive myelin fibers was significantly reduced in dysplastic cortex. Moreover, high-resolution confocal imaging and 3D reconstruction revealed that the myelin fiber network was severely disorganized in dysplastic neocortex, indicating a disturbance of myelin sheath formation and maintenance in FCD.