Browsing by Author "Johnson, Caroline"
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Item Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphate Pesticides and IQ in 7-Year Old Children(2011) Bouchard, Maryse F.; Chevrier, Jonathan; Harley, Kim G.; Kogut, Katherine; Vedar, Michelle; Calderon, Norma; Trujillo, Celina; Johnson, Caroline; Bradman, Asa; Boyd Barr, Dana; Eskenazi, BrendaContext: Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are neurotoxic at high doses. Few studies have examined whether chronic exposure at lower levels could adversely impact children’s cognitive development. Objective: To examine associations between prenatal and postnatal exposure to OP pesticides and cognitive abilities in school-age children. Methods: We conducted a birth-cohort study (CHAMACOS) among predominantly Latino farmworker families from an agricultural community in California. We assessed exposure to OP pesticides by measuring dialkyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites in urine collected during pregnancy and from children at age 6 months and 1, 2, 3½ and 5 years. We administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV to 329 seven-year old children. Analyses were adjusted for maternal education and intelligence, HOME score, and language of cognitive assessment. Results: Urinary DAP concentrations measured during the 1st and 2nd half of pregnancy had similar relations to cognitive scores, thus we used the average of concentrations measured during pregnancy in further analyses. Averaged maternal DAP concentrations were associated with poorer scores for Working Memory, Processing Speed, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, and Full Scale IQ. Children in the highest quintile of maternal DAP concentrations had an average deficit of 7.0 IQ-points compared with those in the lowest quintile. However, children’s urinary DAP concentrations were not consistently associated with cognitive scores. Conclusions: Prenatal but not postnatal urinary DAP concentrations were associated with poorer intellectual development in 7-year-old children. Maternal urinary DAP concentrations in the present study were higher, but nonetheless within the range of levels measured in the general U.S. population.Item The Rise of the Iron Ladies: Female Leadership in Democracies (1960-2015)(2017-12-19) Johnson, Caroline; Cunningham, Kathleen; Department of Government and PoliticsSince Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first female prime minister in 1960, there has been a gradual increase in the number of women entering top political office. In 2013, there was a peak of 14 women leading democracies. However, most previous research used case studies and did not focus specifically on female leaders coming to power in democracies. This thesis investigates two aspects of female leadership in democracies: first, what common characteristics can be identified in the countries where women enter top office, and second, what do female leaders look like compared to their male counterparts? The data indicates that female leaders are more likely to achieve power in democracies in which women have had the right to vote for a longer period of time and in which the executive is a powerful presidency. Female leaders are also more likely to be in power in countries with lower female enrollment in secondary education, where women have had the right to vote for longer a longer period, where there was a recent conflict, in which there is a dual executive, and in which the executive is a powerful presidency. This presents an interesting difference between women coming to power and staying in power. Compared to similar male leaders, the women who come to power are less likely to have children and more likely to have family ties to power. Compared to subsequent female leaders, first female leaders tend to have less prior political experience and are less likely to have experience at lower levels of government. The results have positive implications for the emergence of female leadership in democracies.