Birth Rate

Feminist philosophy can make an important contribution to the field of genocide studies, and issues relating to gender and war are gaining new attention. In this article I trace legal and philosophical analyses of sexual violence against women in war. I analyze the strengths and limitations of the concept of social death—introduced into this field by Claudia Card—for understanding the genocidal features of war rape, and draw on the work of Hannah Arendt to understand the central harm of genocide as an assault on natality. The threat to natality posed by the harms of rape, forced pregnancy and forced maternity lie in the potential expulsion from the public world of certain groups—including women who are victims, members of the 'enemy' group, and children born of forced birth.

BACKGROUND: At present there is considerable interest in healthcare administration, among professionals and among the general public concerning the quality of programmes of assisted reproduction. There exist various methods for comparing and analysing the results of clinical activity, with graphical methods being the most commonly used for this purpose. As yet, there is no general consensus as to how the poor performance (PP) or optimum performance (OP) of assisted reproductive technologies should be defined. METHODS: Data from the IVF/ICSI register of the Spanish Fertility Society were used to compare and analyse different definitions of PP or OP. The primary variable best reflecting the quality of an IVF/ICSI programme was taken to be the percentage of singleton births per IVF/ICSI cycle initiated. Of the 75 infertility clinics that took part in the SEF-2003 survey, data on births were provided by 58. A total of 25 462 cycles were analysed. The following graphical classification methods were used: ranking of the proportion of singleton births per cycles started in each centre (league table), Shewhart control charts, funnel plots, best and worst-case scenarios and state of the art methods. RESULTS: The clinics classified as producing PP or OP varied considerably depending on the classification method used. Only three were rated as providing 'PP' or 'OP' by all methods, unanimously. Another four clinics were classified as 'poor' or 'optimum' by all the methods except one. CONCLUSIONS: On interpreting the results derived from IVF/ICSI centres, it is essential to take into account the characteristics of the method used for this purpose.

Many of the simple mathematical models currently in use often fail to capture important biological factors. Here we extend current models of insect-pathogen interactions to include seasonality in the birth rate. In particular, we consider the SIR model with self-regulation when applied to specific cases-rabbit haemorrhagic disease and fox rabies. In this paper, we briefly summarize the results of the model with a constant time-independent birth rate, a, which we then replace with the time dependent birth rate a(t), to investigate how this effects the dynamics of the host population. We can split parameter space into an area in which the model without seasonality has no oscillations, in which case a simple averaging rule predicts the behaviour. Alternatively, in the area where oscillations to the equilibrium do occur in the non-seasonal model, disease persistence is more complicated and we get more complex dynamical behaviour in this case. We apply resonance techniques to discover the structure of the subharmonic modes of the SIR model with self-regulation. We then look at whether many biological systems are likely to display these ''resonant'' dynamics and find that we would expect them to be widespread.

Background Thailand's progress in reducing the under-fi ve mortality rate (U5MR) puts the country on track to achieve the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Whether this success has been accompanied by a widening or narrowing of the child mortality gap between the poorest and richest populations is unknown. We aimed to measure changes in child-mortality inequalities by household-level socioeconomic strata of the Thai population between 1990 and 2000.

Very little of the intense interest and activity in the field of family planning in Pakistan has come up in the form of publications. Since the formation of the Family Planning Association of Pakistan in 1953 and the initiative of the government in promoting a national family-planning programme in its Second Five-Year Plan, relatively few reports have been printed. Most of what has been written in Pakistan about family planning has either been reported at conferences abroad or published in foreign journals, or submitted as graduate dissertations at universities within the country and abroad1. While numerous papers presented at conferences in Pakistan have been given limited circulation in mimeographed form2, much of the preliminary data, emanating from most of the action-research projects in progress, are held up till substantive demographic changes are measured and approaches evaluated accordingly.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify trends in gonadotropin therapy in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment worldwide. Methods Retrospective evaluation utilizing the results of a Web-based survey, IVF-Worldwide (www.IVF-worldwide. com) was performed. Results Three hundred fourteen centers performing a total of 218,300 annual IVF cycles were evaluated. R e s p o n d e n t s r e p r e s e n t i n g 6 2. 2 % o f c y c l e s (n = 135,800) did not believe there was a difference between urinary and recombinant gonadotropins in terms of efficacy and live birth rate. Of the respondents, 67.3% (n = 146,800) reported no difference between recombinant and urinary formulations in terms of short-term safety and risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. In terms of long-term safety using human urinary gonadotropins, 50.6% (n = 110,400) of respondents believe there are potential long-term risks including prion disease. For 95.3% of units (n = 208,000), the clinician was the decision maker determining which specific gonadotropins are used for IVF. Of the units, 62.6% (n = 136,700) identified efficacy as the most important factor in deciding which gonadotropin to prescribe. While most (67.3%, n = 146,800) were aware of new biosimilar recombinant FSH products entering the market, 92% (n = 201,000) reported they would like more information. A fraction of respondents (25.6%, n = 55,900) reported having experience with these new products, and of these, 80.3% (n = 46,200) reported that they were similar in efficacy as previously used gonadotropins in a similar patient group. Conclusions Respondents representing the majority of centers do not believe a difference exists between urinary and recombinant gonadotropins with respect to efficacy and live birth rates. While many are aware of new biosimilar recombinant FSH products entering the market, over 90% desire more information on these products.

study was carried out on the home range characteristics of seven wild white-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar) groups focusing on the spatio-temporal distribution of food resources at Khao Yai National Park in northeastern Thailand. These results were combined with 23 years of reproductive performance data on seven females from the same focal groups. Reproductive performance was equal among females with regard to birth, weaning and maturation ratios, and independent of variation in food availability. Offspring mortality, however, was significantly positively correlated with home-range size. In addition, there was an increase in offspring mortality just after weaning, suggesting that the increase in the daily dis-tance traveled by juveniles contributed to this mortality. Conceptions clustered during the first half of the year when food production was at its peak, which presumably allowed females to accumulate sufficient body reserves to resume ovarian cycling. Our results place Khao Yai gibbons closer to Cercopithecidae than great apes in terms of the temporal pattern of reproductive events, though gestation, lactation, inter-birth interval, and offspring maturation are considerably longer in gibbons, placing them closer to the other apes. Our findings underline the unique phylogenetic position of these small-bodied apes in terms of reproductive patterns in primates. Am J Phys Anthropol 135:1-12, 2008.

Family Planning Program Evaluation is not a well-developed art, much less an exact science. The evaluation of the performance of such programs has received a good deal of attention but the methodologies are still controversial and the results inconclusive. This is due to a wide variety of constraints, not all of which are technical, and most of which are not unique to family planning. The prospects for improvement of FPPE depend, to a great extent, on overcoming these constraints.

Objective: To estimate the probability of live birth, adverse treatment outcome, and extremes of ovarian response at different antral follicle count (AFC) cutoff levels in a large prospective cohort of women undergoing IVF treatment. Design: Prospective study. Setting: University-based assisted conception unit. Patient(s): A total of 1,012 consecutive subjects of all ages undergoing their first cycle of assisted reproductive techniques. Intervention(s): Transvaginal three-dimensional ultrasound assessment and venipuncture in the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth rate, poor ovarian response, and ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Result(s): Analysis was performed in 1,012 subjects. Both age (r ¼ 0.88) and AFC (r ¼ 0.92) thresholds show significant linear relationship with the probability of live birth, but AFC demonstrates a stronger correlation. At AFC quartiles of 3-10, 11-15, 16-22, and R23, the mean live birth rates were 23%, 34%, 39%, and 44%, respectively. No live birth was observed in women with AFC <4. Antral follicle count was predictive of ovarian response, with a 67% likelihood of poor ovarian response for AFC %4. Although the risk of moderate or severe OHSS is 2.2% with AFC of %24, the risk increases to 8.6% at AFC of R24. The risk of OHSS increases further to 11% if there are signs and symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome. Conclusion(s): Although age and AFC are significantly correlated with live birth, AFC demonstrates a stronger correlation. Antral follicle count thresholds are useful to predict live birth rates and risks of poor ovarian response and OHSS during IVF treatment. (Fertil Steril Ò 2012;98:657-63. Ó2012 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.) Key Words: In vitro fertilization, three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound, ovarian reserve, antral follicle count, live birth, OHSS Discuss: You can discuss this article with its authors and with other ASRM members at

Though fertility in Ghana has declined from an average of 8 children per woman over the past three decades to 4 per woman in recent times, the current rate of population growth is still unmatched by the requisite economic growth. Recent evidence suggests that the use of contraceptives have increased marginally despite the considerable decline in fertility rate. This paper revisits the determinants of contraceptive use among Ghanaian women, aged 15-49 using the 2008 GDHS. Empirically, the logistic and multinomial logistic regressions are used. Our results indicate that wealth status, level of education, ownership of health insurance, number of surviving children, marital status, location and geographical area of residence, religion and women autonomy are significant correlates of contraceptive use in Ghana. The finding reveals that, women who take health decisions jointly with their partners are more likely to use modern contraceptives as compared to women who take health decisions a...

Perhaps one of the most pervasive phenomena among teenaged females today is "teenage fertility." The purpose of this article is to describe teenage fertility as it relates to developing countries. The study attempts to pose the problem by considering a large number of developing nations for which data are available and by describing the levels and trends in teen fertility rates.

It is generally acknowledged that one of the great social transformations in our past was the decline in European fertility in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is unfortunate, then, that one of the greatest gaps in English population history is the ...

Successful cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos is essential not only to maximize the safety and efficacy of ovarian stimulation cycles in an IVF treatment, but also to enable fertility preservation. Two cryopreservation methods are routinely used: slow-freezing or vitrification. Slow-freezing allows for freezing to occur at a sufficiently slow rate to permit adequate cellular dehydration while minimizing intracellular ice formation. Vitrification allows the solidification of the cell(s) and of the extracellular milieu into a glass-like state without the formation of ice. The objective of our study was to provide a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical outcomes following slow-freezing/thawing versus vitrification/warming of oocytes and embryos and to inform the development of World Health Organization guidance on the most effective cryopreservation method. A Medline search was performed from 1966 to 1 August 2016 using the following search terms: (Oocyte(s) [tiab] OR (P...

Just over 20% of white women in America will never bear children, the highest percentage in modern history.  Only half of this group-10% of women without children- are considered infertile.  Many women in the fertile but childless group are voluntarily so:  the self-proclaimed childfree.

Yet despite the growing acceptability in remaining a childfree adult, doctors are resistant to sterilizing women without children. Access to sterilization is usually repeatedly denied, often with tactics of humiliation, hoop jumping, or second-guessing the legitimacy of the patient’s desire for sterilization, despite the legal status of voluntary sterilization for any competent person over the age of 21- regardless of parity.     

This paper will examine the many reasons why a woman who does not have children would want to continue in her childfree lifestyle, evaluate the accessibility of sterilization for women who are childfree by examining the reported reasons for denial of sterilization- both from the woman’s and the physicians’ perspective, and assess the legal status of voluntary sterilization for nonparous women. The paper will conclude that sterilization for childfree women is an ethical, legal option and that willing doctors should follow recommended guidelines for counseling women who desire sterilization, and urge hesitant doctors to reconsider their oppositions to voluntary sterilization for childfree women and provide the contraception of preference to women.

Examines the evidence behind the authors' claim that the current decline in birth rates will accelerate faster than the UN expects because of urbanization, and consequently cause world population to peak far lower and sooner than the UN forecasts.

В статье приведены результаты исследования численности, удельного веса, рождаемости, смертности, возрастного состава бурят Республики Бурятия в 1959-2010-е годы. На основе материалов всесоюзных и всероссийских переписей и данных текущего учета населения проанализированы процессы воспроизводства, вы-явлены этапы и тенденции демографического перехода у бурят. Показана зависимость перехода от различных факторов, в т. ч. социально-классовой, образовательной структуры общества, степени его урбанизированности, от государственной политики и экономических реформ. По результатам исследования авторы делают вывод о том, что численность бурят в сравнении с другими этносами республики в рассматриваемый период выросла значительней благодаря тому, что они находились на более ранних стадиях демографической модернизации, характеризующихся высокой рождаемостью и сравнительно низкой смертностью.

Using data for 1960-97 for 22 low fertility countries, we document a dramatic change in the association of fertility levels to women's levels of labor force participation. Until the 1980s, this association had been strongly negative. However, during the 1980s it became positive, and since 1990 strongly positive. We also document an emerging positive association of the country-level total fertility ratio (TFR) and nonmarital ratio (e.g., the proportion of births to unmarried women). We argue that these transformed associations reflect societal level responses that, in some contexts, have eased the incompatibility between mother and worker roles, and loosened the link between marriage and childbearing. These arguments imply that societal responses to mother/worker incompatibility exert substantial influence on fertility levels in low fertility countries.

BITENCOURT, Fábio. Arquitetura do ambiente de Nascer: reflexões e recomendações projetuais de arquitetura e conforto ambiental. Rio de Janeiro: Rio Books, 2008, 129 p.; il.

Este livro traz como proposta principal apresentar reflexões e recomendações de soluções projetuais para o estabelecimento de padrões de eficiência energética e do conforto ambiental do centro obstétrico e cirúrgico, local destinado ao parto e ao nascimento em maternidades.As altas taxas de mortalidade materna e infantil registradas no Brasil, relacionadas a questões do perfil assistencial do parto e do nascimento, têm desencadeado diferentes programas visando à humanização da atenção obstétrica. São registradas proporções significativas de partos cirúrgicos (cesarianas), muito acima do recomendado pela OMS – Organização Mundial de Saúde, o que caracteriza um modelo de assistência com o uso de excessiva tecnologia e intervenção médica.
As contribuições de qualidade para o ambiente de nascer que a arquitetura pode promover consideram prioritariamente, os estudos de adequações das condições de iluminação naturais e artificiais, o tratamento higro-térmico, a pesquisa da melhoria das condições acústicas e os aspectos visuais que conformam o espaço construído. São apresentados também, os aspectos facilitadores de acessibilidade e os componentes ergonômicos que podem agregar valores de conforto e saúde aos diversos usuários – a parturiente, os profissionais de saúde e os visitantes. - de um centro obstétrico. A concepção arquitetônica para o conforto e adequado funcionamento do centro obstétrico, é um fator que pode  desempenhar um significativo  papel  na qualificação e humanização dos processos e no estabelecimento de atitudes de valorização do parto normal.

... FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN INDIA HARIHAR SAHOO Harihar Sahoo, Asst. Professor, Department of Sociology, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad - 431004, Maharashtra Page 2. Vol. 57, No.1, June - 2011 23 ...

Child birth registration and monitoring is a vital first step towards guaranteeing lifelong protection and securing an identity. It’s a step towards promoting children’s right to birth registration which clearly falls within UNICEF’s mandate. The benefits of child registration is not only limited to the childhood period of a child, in adulthood, birth certificates gotten from birth registration may be needed for many purposes, such as: to obtain social security or a job in the formal sector; to buy or prove the right to inherit property; to obtain identity cards; to vote; and to obtain a passport, especially in Nigeria. Due to this fact, the lack of a birth certificate can have a grave, cumulative, negative effect on people’s life opportunities. Several researchers have developed systems that carry out birth registration, but none of them were able to develop a system that monitors the rate of increase or decrease of the rate of birth in a particular region. In this work, an improved model for birth rate monitoring information system in Nigeria that eliminate the inefficiencies of the existing systems have been developed, and produced accurate monitoring results. Tools such as homogenous database, automated Centralized system, were used and the result of the records search was displayed in a user-friendly interface for the users to access. We adopted the Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) for this approach. The system was implemented using Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), JavaScript and MySQL as the Backend. The result shows accurate birth rate monitoring with a performance evaluation of 86% as superior to the existing system with an accuracy of 66%. This system will be beneficial to: The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), to Federal Government of Nigeria, to NIMC, to Educational bodies such as WAEC, NECO, JAMB, to tertiary institutions and Security Forces and to any other organization that deals on child registration.

The semi-parametric regression achieved via penalized spline smoothing can be expressed in a linear mixed models framework. This allows such models to be ÿtted using standard mixed models software routines with which many biostatisticians are familiar. Moreover, the analysis of complex correlated data structures that are a hallmark of biostatistics, and which are typically analysed using mixed models, can now incorporate directly smoothing of the relationship between an outcome and covariates. In this paper we provide an introduction to both linear mixed models and penalized spline smoothing, and describe the connection between the two. This is illustrated with three examples, the ÿrst using birth data from the U.K., the second relating mammographic density to age in a study of female twin-pairs and the third modelling the relationship between age and bronchial hyperresponsiveness in families. The models are ÿtted in R (a clone of S-plus) and using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) implemented in the package WinBUGS.

AKI atau Angka Kematian Ibu di Indonesia menjadi yang tertinggi di Asia Tenggara. Tingginya AKI di Indonesia yaitu 390 per 100.000 kelahiran hidup (SDKI 1994) tertinggi di ASEAN. Salah satunya angka kematian ibu yang terjadi di Papua dalam masa pra persalinan, saat proses persalinan, atau pun setelah persalinan masih menjadi isu permasalahan yang penanganannya masih terus dilakukan. Adanya tema budaya yang mempengaruhinya pun tidak luput menjadi perhatian dalam proses penanganannya, khususnya pada daerah-daerah pedalaman Papua yang sulit dijamah oleh petugas dan tenaga kerja di bidang kesehatan.
Salah satu budaya dalam persalinan para ibu Papua yang menjadi perhatian penulis ialah mengenai tradisi Blood Taboo yang terjadi ketika proses persalinan dan sangat membahayakan kondisi kesehatan ibu maupun bayinya.

Arctic demography has previously been reviewed on a large scale, across the circumpolar nations. We look instead at some recent population dynamics on sub-regional to community scales, focusing on Arctic Alaska. Detailed graphics depicting yearly population changes from 1990 to 2006 in 43 selected Arctic Alaska towns and villages and all 27 of the state’s “county-equivalent entities” (e.g., boroughs) have been published online in connection with two International Polar Year projects. Seemingly comparable places within the same borough have taken widely divergent paths. Birth rates generally exceed death rates, although both are high. Year-to-year and place-to-place variations are dominated not by natural increase, but by differences in net migration. Population changes influence demand for resources such as water, electricity, fuel, and capital improvements, and probably for subsistence resources as well. Migration rates provide sensitive indicators that integrate diverse internal and external pressures.

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This report may be used, in whole or in part, as the basis for development of clinical practice guidelines and other quality enhancement tools, or a basis for reimbursement and coverage policies. AHRQ or U.S. Department of Health and Human Services endorsement of such derivative products may not be stated or implied.

Introductory courses dealing with sex, gender and sexuality are usually quite biased, going as far as to deny the reality of biology. Drawing on the Catholic tradition (Aquinas), this article presents an accessible argument aimed at restoring deliberative balance in the classroom.

The present chapter examines past and projected population trends and assesses the implications of these latter trends for dependency ratio developments. The essential feature to highlight regarding past and current developments is the extent of the demographic upheaval which has and is occurring, due to falling birth rates and lengthening life spans. As regards future projections, while uncertainties exist, especially regarding the evolution of fertility rates, one fact appears indisputable namely that large increases in the share of the over 65s in the populations of the EU15, US and Japan will inevitably occur due to the fact that the post-war baby-boom generations in the latter areas will be reaching the normal retirement age in the early decades of the next century. It is envisaged that this ageing process, leading to higher dependency ratios in all of the three regions, will have major economic and social consequences for the countries affected, although accurate predictions will be difficult given that nothing is available in terms of historical demographic precedents.

Replacement fertility is a term commonly used by demographers when referring to levels of childbearing and yet is rarely explained. It is normally presented as being around 2.1 children per woman. Continued below replacement fertility in developed countries and fertility falling in developing countries has given the concept of replacement fertility a higher profile. This article explains how replacement level is calculated and explores the concept further. Past replacement fertility levels are calculated for England and Wales. A possible alternative definition of replacement is also presented. Simple projection scenarios are used to show the effect on population of below replacement fertility, and also of postponement of fertility. The importance and implications of below replacement fertility are discussed.

Sperm cells are the endpoint of male spermatogenesis and have particular anatomic and metabolic features. Sperm cryopreservation and storage currently require liquid nitrogen or ultralow refrigeration methods for long or short term storage, which requires routine maintenance and extensive space requirements. Conserving sperms have several purposes such as artificial reproductive technologies (ART), species conservation and clinical medicine. The combinations of storage temperature, cooling rate, chemical composition of the extender, cryoprotectant concentration, reactive oxygen species (ROS), seminal plasma composition and hygienic control are the key factors that affect the lifespan of spermatozoa. Sperm preservation protocols vary among animal species owing to their inherent particularities that change extenders used for refrigeration and freezing. Extenders for freezing sperm cells contain buffers, carbohydrates (glucose, lactose, raffinose, saccharose and trehalose), salts (sodium citrate, citric acid), egg yolk and antibiotics. The use of different cryoprotectants, like trehalose or glycerol, as well as different concentrations of egg yolk and other constituents in semen extenders are being studied in our laboratory. Several cooling rates have been tested to freeze sperm cells. The use of faster rates (15-60°C/min) gives rise to best sperm survivals after freezing-thawing, but more studies are needed to find the adequate cooling rates for each animal species. Sheep and goat males of some native breeds are being used in studies performed in EZN. Semen from those males has been frozen and stored as part of the Portuguese Animal Germplasm Bank. In small ruminants, individual variations in the quality of frozen semen have been observed, suggesting specific differences in sperm susceptibility to freezing methods, particularly obvious in goat males. Best quality frozen semen from small ruminants is being used in cervical artificial insemination studies aiming to increase productive parameters in selected flocks.

To determine the effects of ovarian stimulation with highly purified urofollitropin on oocyte and embryo quality. Design: Parallel randomized open-label clinical study. Setting: Assisted reproduction centers. Patient(s): Two hundred sixty-seven infertile couples undergoing IVF/ICSI. Intervention(s): All participants underwent standard down-regulation with GnRH analogue. One hundred thirty-three participants received highly purified urinary FSH and 134 controls received recombinant FSH. Main Outcome Measure(s): Primary end points were number of morphologically mature oocytes retrieved, embryo quality, and pregnancy and implantation rates. Secondary end points were: total number of days of FSH stimulation, total dose of gonadotropin administered, fertilization rate per number of retrieved oocytes, embryo cleavage rate, live birth and miscarriage rates, endometrial thickness and estradiol level on the day of hCG administration, cancellation rate, and incidence of moderate or severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Result(s): Pregnancy and implantation rates were nonsignificantly higher in the urinary FSH group than the recombinant FSH group (46.5% vs. 36.8% and 22.1% vs. 15.8%, respectively). The grade 1 embryo score was significantly higher in the urinary FSH group than the recombinant FSH (42.1% vs. 33.5%), and the live birth rate was nonsignificantly higher in the former group. Conclusion(s): Highly purified urinary FSH is as effective, efficient, and safe for clinical use as recombinant FSH. (Fertil Steril 2002;78:1061-7.

В статье приводятся новые данные об обстоятельствах запрета абортов в СССР в 1936 году. На материалах Челябинской области, а также союзных республик, показана недейственность законодательного запрета и рост числа криминальных абортов. Автор пришёл к выводу, что при проведении государственной политики игнорировались результаты народных обсуждений и мнения специалистов.
This article provides new information on the prohibition of abortion on the territory of the USSR in 1936. On the example of the Chelyabinsk region, as well as on the materials of the national republics of the Soviet Union, the article shows how in Soviet society abortions were distributed in spite of their legislative prohibition. According to the author, the government’s policy in the field of maternal health was ignored the opinions of people and specialists.

The essay argues that Marianne Moore's "The Camperdown Elm" (1967) employs a form of confession, to the scandal of being an elderly woman, as part of her ongoing exploration and deployment of the evolving dynamics of celebrity culture, to benefit Moore's activist causes, her own poetic longevity, and her relationship with her fans. This exploration occurs in dialogue with her contemporaries the confessionals, her modernist peers (Eliot and Loy) and her environmentalist precursors -specifically the Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Asher Durand and the meditative, environmental poet William Cullen Bryant, all named in the poem -to construct its own meditation on influence, authority and mortality. The poem explores the scandal of age with reference to the tradition of ekphrastic meditations on the poet's own death, but concludes by turning away from meditation toward direct action (saving a real tree) and collaborative relationship with Moore's fans. Keywords: Marianne Moore's later work / poetic persona and authority claims / William Cullen Bryant / ekphrastic poetry / environmental poetry Detail from photo of Marianne Moore by Sarony Photos, 1924. Reproduced courtesy of the Rosenbach Museum and Library; XII:03:03a.