Exposure of young children to older children at home or to other children at day care protects against the development of asthma and frequent wheezing later in childhood.

Background Female physician-researchers do not achieve career success at the same rate as men. Differences in nonprofessional responsibilities may partially explain this gap. Objective To investigate the division of domestic labor by gender in a motivated group of early-career physician-researchers. Design Nationwide postal survey between 2010 and 2011. Setting United States. Participants Physician recipients of National Institutes of Health K08 or K23 awards between 2006 and 2009 with active academic affiliation at the time of the survey. Measurements Time spent on parenting and domestic tasks was determined through self-report. Among married or partnered respondents with children, a linear regression model of time spent on domestic activities was constructed considering age, gender, race, specialty, MD or MD/PhD status, age of youngest child, number of children, work hours, K award type, and spousal employment. Results A 74% response rate was achieved, and 1049 respondents were academic physicians. Women were more likely than men to have spouses or domestic partners who were employed full-time (85.6% [95% CI, 82.7% to 89.2%] vs. 44.9% [CI, 40.8% to 49.8%]). Among married or partnered respondents with children, after adjustment for work hours, spousal employment, and other factors, women spent 8.5 more hours per week on domestic activities. In the subgroup with spouses or domestic partners who were employed full-time, women were more likely to take time off during disruptions of usual child care arrangements than men (42.6% [CI, 36.6% to 49.0%] vs. 12.4% [CI, 5.4% to 19.5%]). Limitations Analyses relied on self-reported data. The study design did not enable investigation of the relationship between domestic activities and professional success. Conclusion In this sample of career-oriented professionals, gender differences in domestic activities existed among those with children. Most men's spouses or domestic partners were not employed full-time, which contrasted sharply with the experiences of women.

Markers that reliably identify cancer stem cells (CSC) in ovarian cancer could assist prognosis and improve strategies for therapy. CD133 is a reported marker of ovarian CSC. Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity is a reported CSC marker in several solid tumors but it has not been studied in ovarian CSC. Here we report that dual positivity of CD133 and ALDH defines a compelling marker set in ovarian CSC. All human ovarian tumors and cell lines displayed ALDH activity. ALDH+ cells isolated from ovarian cancer cell lines were chemoresistant and preferentially grew tumors compared to ALDH− cells, validating ALDH as a marker of ovarian CSC in cell lines. Notably, as few as 1000 ALDH+ cells isolated directly from CD133(−) human ovarian tumors were sufficient to generate tumors in immunocompromised mice, whereas 50,000 ALDH− cells were unable to initiate tumors. Using ALDH in combination with CD133 to analyze ovarian cancer cell lines we observed even greater growth in the ALDH+CD133+ cells compared to ALDH+CD133− cells, suggesting a further enrichment of ovarian CSC in ALDH+CD133+ cells. Strikingly, as few as 11 ALDH+CD133+ cells isolated directly from human tumors were sufficient to initiate tumors in mice. Like other CSC, ovarian CSC exhibited increased angiogenic capacity compared to bulk tumor cells. Lastly, the presence of ALDH+CD133+cells in debulked primary tumor specimens correlated with reduced disease-free and overall survival in ovarian cancer patients. Taken together, our findings define ALDH and CD133 as a functionally significant set of markers to identify ovarian CSCs.

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