Women's schooling is strongly related to child survival and other outcomes beneficial to children throughout the developing world, but the reasons behind these statistical connections have been unclear. In Literacy and Mothering, the authors show, for the first time, how communicative change plays a key role: Girls acquire academic literacy skills, even in low-quality schools, which enable them, as mothers, to understand public health messages in the mass media and to navigate bureaucratic health services effectively, reducing risks to their children's health. With the acquisition of...

Pteridine and folate research has long been recognized as important for many biological processes, such as amino acid metabolism, nucleic acid synthesis, neurotransmitter synthesis, cancer, cardiovascular function, and growth and development of essentially all living organisms. Defects in synthesis, metabolism and/or nutritional availability of these compounds have been implicated as major causes of common disease processes, e.g. cancer, inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disorders, neurological diseases, autoimmune processes, and birth defects.
Since pteridine and folate biology...