THIS ARTICLE PROPOSES that a third demographic transition is underway in Europe and the United States. The ancestry of some national populations is being radically and permanently altered by high levels of immigration of persons from remote geographic origins or with distinctive ethnic and racial ancestry, in combination with persistent sub-replacement fertility and accelerated levels of emigration of the domestic population. The estimates and projections on which these statements are based relate to seven European countries with a 2005 total population of 183 million-about half the population of Western Europe. Most of the other Western European countries, however, share the same essential features of low fertility and high immigration.This proposition resolves itself into two claims. The first has two components: (i) in some industrial countries a rapid change is already apparent in the composition of the population according to national or ethnic origin, arising from the direct and indirect effects of immigration in the last few decades, and (ii) projections based on plausible assumptions imply, within the conventional time scale of projections, a substantial alteration of the composition of that population which if continued in the longer term would lead to the displacement of the original population into a minority position. This first claim is relatively easy to demonstrate in empirical terms, given explicit and defensible assumptions.The second claim is that such a process, were it to continue and materialize in its demographic aspect over such a short historical period would warrant the label of "transition." Ultimate acceptance of such a label would depend on whether the transformation proved to be permanent and general and thereby would bear comparison with the familiar first and second demographic transitions.

Two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were raised against the Candida albicans cell-surface glycoprotein Als3 using the N-terminal domain of the protein as the immunogen. ELISA was used to demonstrate the specificity of the MAbs for the Als3 fragment, but not for the corresponding N-terminal domain fragments from other proteins in the Als family. The anti-Als3 MAbs immunolabeled the surface of germ tubes from a diverse collection of wild-type C. albicans isolates, but did not label yeast cells, an als3Δ/als3Δ deletion mutant strain, nor isolates of other Candida species associated with human disease. Als3 was visualized readily in fresh and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded kidney tissue from a murine model of candidiasis. The anti-Als3 MAbs were also useful for immunogold electron microscopy and Western blotting. Both MAbs blocked C. albicans adhesion to vascular endothelial cells and buccal epithelial cells. These versatile MAbs are a valuable addition to the reagents available to study C. albicans cell surface dynamics and interaction of the fungus with host cells.

Background Heterozygous mutations in sarcomere genes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are proposed to exert their effect through gain-of-function for missense mutations or loss-of-function for truncating mutations. However, allelic expression from individual mutations has not been sufficiently characterized to support this exclusive distinction in human HCM. Methods and Results Sarcomere transcript and protein levels were analyzed in septal myectomy and transplant specimens from 46 genotyped HCM patients with or without sarcomere gene mutations and 10 control hearts. For truncating mutations in MYBPC3, the average ratio of mutant:wild-type transcripts was ~1:5, in contrast to ~1:1 for all sarcomere missense mutations, confirming that nonsense transcripts are uniquely unstable. However, total MYBPC3 mRNA was significantly increased by ~9 fold in HCM samples with MYBPC3 mutations compared to control hearts and to HCM samples without sarcomere gene mutations. Full-length MYBPC3 protein content was not different between MYBPC3 mutant HCM and control samples and no truncated proteins were detected. By absolute quantification of abundance (AQUA) with multiple reaction monitoring, stoichiometric ratios of mutant sarcomere proteins relative to wild-type were strikingly variable in a mutation-specific manner, with the fraction of mutant protein ranging from 30–84%. Conclusions These results challenge the concept that haploinsufficiency is a unifying mechanism for HCM caused by MYBPC3 truncating mutations. The range of allelic imbalance for several missense sarcomere mutations suggests that certain mutant proteins may be more or less stable, or incorporate more or less efficiently into the sarcomere than wild-type proteins. These mutation-specific properties may distinctly influence disease phenotypes.

SummaryDemographic data on fertility and intermarriage are useful measures of integration and assimilation. This paper reviews trends in total fertility and intermarriage of foreign populations in Europe and compares them with the trends in fertility of the host population and the sending country. In almost all cases fertility has declined. The fertility of most European immigrant populations and of some West Indian and non-Muslim Asian populations has declined to a period level at or below that of the host society. Muslim populations from Turkey, North Africa and South Asia have shown the least decline. Intermarriage is proceeding faster than might be expected in immigrant populations which seemed in economic terms to be imperfectly integrated. Up to 40% of West Indians born in the UK, for example, appear to have white partners as do high proportions of young Maghrebians in France.

This paper presents estimates of the level and trend of the fertility of different ethnic minorities in the UK from the 1960s up to 2006. The fertility estimates are derived primarily from the Labour Force Survey using the Own-Child method, with additional information from the General Household Survey and vital registration data. Comparisons are made between the level of fertility of UK-born and immigrant mothers from minority groups, and the fertility of the populations in the country of origin. Total fertility in all groups has fallen from levels that were initially relatively high. That of some UK ethnic groups has already fallen to about the level of the UK national average (e.g., black Caribbean) or below it (e.g., Indian and Chinese). Only among Pakistani and Bangladeshi women does total fertility remain substantially above the national average despite a continuous decrease over the last 20 years.

Male preference in many Asian cultures results in discriminatory practices against females, including neglect and infanticide. This preference, together with the availability of prenatal sex determination and sex-selective abortion, has led to an increase in sex ratios at birth in China, India, and South Korea. The resulting expected gender imbalances raise ethical, demographic, and social concerns. We analyzed birth statistics to see whether similar trends are apparent among births to foreign-born mothers in England and Wales. Before 1990, sex ratios at birth were consistently nearly one point lower (104) for the three major Asian groups in Britain compared with mothers born in Western countries. This is inconsistent with previous suggestions that Asian populations have a higher "natural" sex ratio at birth. In the birth statistics since 1990, we find a four-point increase in the sex ratio at birth for mothers born in India, attributable particularly to an increase at higher birth orders, mirroring findings reported for India. This suggests that sex-selective abortion is occurring among mothers born in India and living in Britain. By contrast, no significant increase was observed for Pakistan-born and Bangladesh-born mothers, among whom male preference also exists. It seems that male preference in different cultures does not necessarily lead to sex-selective abortion. Copyright 2007 The Population Council, Inc..

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Long-term clinical outcome and left ventricular function are good, despite severe left ventricular dysfunction at presentation.