Eleanor M Miller
Biographic Data
| ID | 77329 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eleanor M Miller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eleanor M |
| FAMILY NAME | Miller |
| SIGNATURE | MILLER E M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5046-380X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 138 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 45 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Celebrating Over 10 Years of Human Milk Research in the Human Biology Association
Since we published “Field and Laboratory Methods in Human Milk Research” in 2013, human milk research has increased dramatically in both number and diversity of studies. Anthropological human biologists and biological anthropologists have played key roles in the realization of this research, arguing that evolutionary, developmental, and biocultural perspectives as essential for understanding variation in human milk. The purpose of this review is …
Revisiting geophagy: An evolved sickness behavior to microbiome‐mediated gastrointestinal inflammation
Geophagy, the consumption of clay or similar substances, is known as an evolved behavior that protects vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and children, against gastrointestinal injury. However, perplexing questions remain, like the presence of geophagy in the absence of overt gastrointestinal infection and the potential causal relationship between geophagy and iron deficiency anemia. In this review, we hypothesize that geophagy is an …
A critical biocultural approach to early growth in the United States
OBJECTIVES: A critical biocultural anthropology seeks to link perspectives from social theory and ethnography to human biology. In the United States (U.S.), multiple forms of structural inequalities affect early growth, including racism and poverty. The goal of this paper is to test the effects of social inequalities on birth weight and later height in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES), and to contextualize potential pathways…
Doula Perspectives on Lactation Education and Breastfeeding Support for Diverse, Low-income Women: A Field Report
Women living below the federal poverty level have low breastfeeding rates and historically have lacked access to doula care. This disparity is particularly evident among African American women. The objective of this pilot study was to assess doulas' experiences delivering lactation education to racially/ethnically diverse, primarily Medicaid-eligible pregnant women and describe doulas' perceptions of client barriers to breastfeeding. We also want…
Predictors of interleukin‐1β and interleukin‐1 receptor antagonist in infant saliva
OBJECTIVES: This study assesses the feasibility of measuring interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) in infant salivary samples as representative of pro- and anti-inflammatory processes, and explores predictors of these biomarkers in a US population. METHODS: Data were collected from 73 US mother-infant pairs. Salivary samples were collected with an infant swab and analyzed for IL-1β, IL-1ra, and immunoglobulin A (Ig…
Food Insecurity and Age at Menarche in Tampa Bay, Florida
The aim of this study was to assess whether household food insecurity is associated with delayed or early menarche among girls in the United States. Thirty-six dyadic household interviews were conducted with mothers and adolescent girls. The interviews included a socio-demographic survey, the USDA Six-Item Short Form Household Food Security Survey Module, anthropometric measurements, and the self-administered Youth-Adolescent Food Frequency Quest…
Historical Antecedents of Breastfeeding for African American Women: From the Pre-Colonial Period to the Mid-Twentieth Century
Perceptions and Practices of Infant Feeding among African American Women
A large urban hospital in Florida implemented changes to achieve the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) designation in 2015 resulting in an increase of exclusive breastfeeding rates at hospital discharge; however, African American women continue to have the lowest rates overall. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 African American women who received prenatal care at a low-income women's clinic and gave birth at an affiliated BFHI …
Ecological immunity of human milk: Life history perspectives from the United States and Kenya
OBJECTIVES: Previous research has established population variation in anti-inflammatory immunological biomarkers in human milk. This immunity is potentially ecology-dependent and may alter the life history trade-off between growth and maintenance in infants. The current study has two aims: (1) to assess the ecological differences in milk immunity in two populations, one from the urban U.S. and one from rural Kenya; and (2) to test the hypothesis …
The first Seriatum study of growth by R. E. Scammon
Richard E. Scammon's article, “The First Seriatim Study of Human Growth,” provided one of the best‐known visuals in the field of human biology. Scammon resurrected longitudinal height data of one child from Buffon's Histoire Naturelle , converted them to metric, and plotted these measurements as a function of age. The result was the first graph of one individual's growth curve from birth to 18 years of age. This image was subsequently reproduced …
What is significant about a single nursing session? An exploratory study
Objectives Researchers and clinicians specializing in breastfeeding often rely on measuring one nursing session to characterize the breastfeeding relationship. However, less is known about the descriptive or statistically predictive characteristics of one nursing session. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) to explore the relationships between variables in a single nursing session; and (2) to study the association between variables in a s…
Pregnancy and immune stimulation: Re‐imagining the fetus as parasite to understand age‐related immune system changes in US women
OBJECTIVES: Pregnancy can increase production of Immunoglobulin E (IgE), an immune response more often directed towards parasite infections. An absence of parasitism makes the US population ideal to test the hypothesis that the maternal immune system recognizes a fetus as a parasite. We predict that total IgE levels are positively associated with a history of pregnancy across all ages of adult women, mirroring patterns of IgE in parasitized popul…
The reproductive ecology of iron in women
Reproductive ecology focuses on the sensitivity of human reproduction to environmental variation. While reproductive ecology has historically focused on the relationship between energy status and reproductive outcomes, iron status is equally critical to women's reproductive health, given the wide‐ranging detrimental effects of iron‐deficiency anemia on maternal and infant well‐being. This review interprets the vast literature on iron status and w…
A comparison of three infant skinfold reference standards: T anner– W hitehouse, C ambridge I nfant G rowth Study, and WHO C hild G rowth S tandards
As researchers increasingly focus on early infancy as a critical period of development, there is a greater need for methodological tools that can address all aspects of infant growth. Infant skinfold measures, in particular, are measurements in need of reliable reference standards that encompass all ages of infants and provide an accurate assessment of the relative fatness of a population. This report evaluates three published reference standards…
Foundations for Literacy: An Early Literacy Intervention for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
The present study evaluated the efficacy of a new preschool early literacy intervention created specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with functional hearing. Teachers implemented Foundations for Literacy with 25 DHH children in 2 schools (intervention group). One school used only spoken language, and the other used sign with and without spoken language. A "business as usual" comparison group included 33 DHH children who were m…
Milk immunity and reproductive status among Ariaal women of northern Kenya
This research shows that patterns of reproductive investment can be demonstrated in milk IgA in the absence of measured energy changes
Chronic undernutrition and traditional weaning foods are associated with fat stores in ariaal infants of Northern Kenya
The high proportion of human infant fat is hypothesized to protect infant brains by mobilizing against growth disturbances caused by acute nutritional and pathogen stress during weaning. However, individuals who experience chronic nutritional stress have been shown to store fat rather than mobilize fat stores, although this has not been demonstrated during infancy. This study investigated the relationship between fat development, diet, and nutrit…
Field and laboratory methods in human milk research
Human milk is a complex and variable fluid of increasing interest to human biologists who study nutrition and health. The collection and analysis of human milk poses many practical and ethical challenges to field workers, who must balance both appropriate methodology with the needs of participating mothers and infants and logistical challenges to collection and analysis. In this review, we address various collection methods, volume measurements, …
Phonological Awareness: Explicit Instruction for Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
The goal of this study was to explore the development of spoken phonological awareness for deaf and hard-of-hearing children (DHH) with functional hearing (i.e., the ability to access spoken language through hearing). Teachers explicitly taught five preschoolers the phonological awareness skills of syllable segmentation, initial phoneme isolation, and rhyme discrimination in the context of a multifaceted emergent literacy intervention. Instructio…
A highly sensitive immunoassay for interleukin‐6 in dried blood spots
OBJECTIVE: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that is associated with the production of C-reactive protein, the acute phase response, and chronic low-grade inflammation. In this report, we describe and validate a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantifying IL-6 at low concentrations in samples of capillary whole blood collected from a simple finger stick and dried on filter paper (dried blood spots,…
Brief communication: Chronic undernutrition is associated with higher mucosal antibody levels among ariaal infants of northern kenya
The immune activation that occurs with infection diverts energy from growth and can contribute to poor nutritional outcomes in developing infants and children. This study investigates the association between salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels and growth outcomes among Ariaal infants of northern Kenya. The Ariaal are a group of settled northern Kenyan pastoralists who are under considerable nutritional stress. Two hundred and thirty‐nine breas…
The stability of immunoglobulin a in human milk and saliva stored on filter paper at ambient temperature
OBJECTIVES: Immunoglobulin A dominates mucosal surfaces and is a biomarker of interest in populations with a high disease burden. The objectives of this work are to describe an ELISA for IgA and test the stability of storage on filter paper for human milk and saliva collection to be used in remote field locations. METHODS: A two-site sandwich ELISA for IgA was developed. To test filter paper storage capabilities under field conditions, 248 matche…
The roles of the immune system in Women's reproduction: Evolutionary constraints and life history trade‐offs
Life history theory posits that, as long as survival is assured, finite resources are available for reproduction, maintenance, and growth/storage. To maximize lifetime reproductive success, resources are subject to trade‐offs both within individuals and between current and future investment. For women, reproducing is costly and time‐consuming; the bulk of available resources must be allocated to reproduction at the expense of more flexible system…
Maternal health and knowledge and infant health outcomes in the Ariaal people of northern Kenya
Maternal hemoglobin depletion in a settled Northern Kenyan pastoral population
Objectives: This study examines maternal hemoglobin depletion in a cross‐sectional sample of Ariaal women living in northern Kenya. Maternal hemoglobin depletion occurs when women do not have enough dietary iron to replace the high levels of iron allocated to the fetus during pregnancy. Methods: To study this phenomenon, reproductive histories, socioeconomic status, anthropometry, and hemoglobin levels were collected from a cross‐section of 200 l…
The Discourse of Empowerment: Foucault, Marcuse, and Women's Fitness Texts
Through the methodology of textual analysis, this study discusses how women's fitness magazine texts equate physical health with beauty and how this equation is achieved. Michel Foucault's ideas on power and discipline and Herbert Marcuse's ideas on co-optation are employed to inform the research. The study discusses how texts often use empowerment, or feminist, ideology to convey to readers that exercise and fitness pursuits, when used to achiev…
The Limits of Biological Determinism
Udry (2000, henceforward Udry), claims to have established that sex dimorphic behavior is produced by prenatal exposure to varying levels of testosterone. He concludes that if societies depart too far from the underlying sex-dimorphism of biological predispositions, they will generate social malaise and social pressures to drift back toward closer alignment with biology (p. 454). Udry's work is part of a long scientific tradition-that of biologic…
Maternal health and knowledge and infant health outcomes in the Ariaal people of northern Kenya
The roles of the immune system in Women's reproduction: Evolutionary constraints and life history trade‐offs
Life history theory posits that, as long as survival is assured, finite resources are available for reproduction, maintenance, and growth/storage. To maximize lifetime reproductive success, resources are subject to trade‐offs both within individuals and between current and future investment. For women, reproducing is costly and time‐consuming; the bulk of available resources must be allocated to reproduction at the expense of more flexible system…
Assessing the Risk of Inattention to Class, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender: Comment on Lyng
Ecological immunity of human milk: Life history perspectives from the United States and Kenya
OBJECTIVES: Previous research has established population variation in anti-inflammatory immunological biomarkers in human milk. This immunity is potentially ecology-dependent and may alter the life history trade-off between growth and maintenance in infants. The current study has two aims: (1) to assess the ecological differences in milk immunity in two populations, one from the urban U.S. and one from rural Kenya; and (2) to test the hypothesis …
The reproductive ecology of iron in women
Reproductive ecology focuses on the sensitivity of human reproduction to environmental variation. While reproductive ecology has historically focused on the relationship between energy status and reproductive outcomes, iron status is equally critical to women's reproductive health, given the wide‐ranging detrimental effects of iron‐deficiency anemia on maternal and infant well‐being. This review interprets the vast literature on iron status and w…
Chronic undernutrition and traditional weaning foods are associated with fat stores in ariaal infants of Northern Kenya
The high proportion of human infant fat is hypothesized to protect infant brains by mobilizing against growth disturbances caused by acute nutritional and pathogen stress during weaning. However, individuals who experience chronic nutritional stress have been shown to store fat rather than mobilize fat stores, although this has not been demonstrated during infancy. This study investigated the relationship between fat development, diet, and nutrit…
Brief communication: Chronic undernutrition is associated with higher mucosal antibody levels among ariaal infants of northern kenya
The immune activation that occurs with infection diverts energy from growth and can contribute to poor nutritional outcomes in developing infants and children. This study investigates the association between salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels and growth outcomes among Ariaal infants of northern Kenya. The Ariaal are a group of settled northern Kenyan pastoralists who are under considerable nutritional stress. Two hundred and thirty‐nine breas…
Historical Antecedents of Breastfeeding for African American Women: From the Pre-Colonial Period to the Mid-Twentieth Century
Paradoxes of Gender
In this innovative book, a well-known feminist and sociologist-who is also the founding editor of Gender & Society-challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber argues that gender is wholly a product of socialization, subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation, and that it is a social institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences. Calling into question the i…
Edgework Revisited: Reply to Miller
Dis
The Economics of Crime
Labeling Women Deviant: Gender, Stigma, and Social Control. Edwin M. Schur
Georg Simmel: On Women, Sexuality and Love.Georg Simmel , Guy Oakes
Women in the Prison System
The Prostitute and Her Clients: Your Pleasure is Her Business
Street Woman
The Economics of Prostitution
Street Woman
The Worth of Women's Work: A Qualitative Synthesis
The Worth of Women's Work: A Qualitative Synthesis
Edgework Revisited: Reply to Miller
Assessing the Risk of Inattention to Class, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender: Comment on Lyng
Paradoxes of Gender
In this innovative book, a well-known feminist and sociologist-who is also the founding editor of Gender & Society-challenges our most basic assumptions about gender. Judith Lorber argues that gender is wholly a product of socialization, subject to human agency, organization, and interpretation, and that it is a social institution comparable to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and consequences. Calling into question the i…
Beggars and Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals
As the incidence of violent crime rises in the United States, so does the public demand for a solution. But what will work? Mark S. Fleisher has spent years among inmates in jails and prisons and on the streets with thieves, gang members, addicts, and life-long criminals in Seattle and other cities across the country. In Beggars and Thieves, he writes about how and why they become and remain offenders, and about the actual role of jails and priso…
Repositioning Feminism and Education: Perspectives on Educating for Social Change . Janice Jipson , Petra Munro , Susan Victor , Karen Froude Jones , Gretchen Freed-Rowland Changing Methods: Feminists…
The Discourse of Empowerment: Foucault, Marcuse, and Women's Fitness Texts
Through the methodology of textual analysis, this study discusses how women's fitness magazine texts equate physical health with beauty and how this equation is achieved. Michel Foucault's ideas on power and discipline and Herbert Marcuse's ideas on co-optation are employed to inform the research. The study discusses how texts often use empowerment, or feminist, ideology to convey to readers that exercise and fitness pursuits, when used to achiev…
Dis
Everyday Inequalities: Critical Inquiries
List of Contributors. Foreword (Mary Romero) Preface. Introduction: Differences and Inequalities (Jodi O'Brien) PART I. EVERYDAY INTERACTION. Doing Studs: The Performance of Gender and Sexuality on Late-Night Television (Jocelyn A. Gender Performances on Muds (Lori Kendall) PART II. MANAGING SELF/SOCIETY CONFLICTS. Frederick the Great or Frederick's of Hollywood? The Accomplishment of Gender Among Women In the Military (Melissa S. Herbert) Sisyph…
The Limits of Biological Determinism
Udry (2000, henceforward Udry), claims to have established that sex dimorphic behavior is produced by prenatal exposure to varying levels of testosterone. He concludes that if societies depart too far from the underlying sex-dimorphism of biological predispositions, they will generate social malaise and social pressures to drift back toward closer alignment with biology (p. 454). Udry's work is part of a long scientific tradition-that of biologic…
Changes in serum immunity during pregnancy
Pregnancy requires a host of localized immune factors that allow the mother to tolerate the fetus. Changes in the mother's serum immunity during pregnancy are less well‐known. To clarify these changes, 1,351 women from the NHANES 1999–2000 were analyzed with complex survey regression to test the effect of pregnancy on adaptive and innate immune markers. Adjusting for age and BMI, pregnant women had higher C‐reactive protein levels and white blood…
Maternal hemoglobin depletion in a settled Northern Kenyan pastoral population
Objectives: This study examines maternal hemoglobin depletion in a cross‐sectional sample of Ariaal women living in northern Kenya. Maternal hemoglobin depletion occurs when women do not have enough dietary iron to replace the high levels of iron allocated to the fetus during pregnancy. Methods: To study this phenomenon, reproductive histories, socioeconomic status, anthropometry, and hemoglobin levels were collected from a cross‐section of 200 l…
The stability of immunoglobulin a in human milk and saliva stored on filter paper at ambient temperature
OBJECTIVES: Immunoglobulin A dominates mucosal surfaces and is a biomarker of interest in populations with a high disease burden. The objectives of this work are to describe an ELISA for IgA and test the stability of storage on filter paper for human milk and saliva collection to be used in remote field locations. METHODS: A two-site sandwich ELISA for IgA was developed. To test filter paper storage capabilities under field conditions, 248 matche…
The roles of the immune system in Women's reproduction: Evolutionary constraints and life history trade‐offs
Life history theory posits that, as long as survival is assured, finite resources are available for reproduction, maintenance, and growth/storage. To maximize lifetime reproductive success, resources are subject to trade‐offs both within individuals and between current and future investment. For women, reproducing is costly and time‐consuming; the bulk of available resources must be allocated to reproduction at the expense of more flexible system…
Maternal health and knowledge and infant health outcomes in the Ariaal people of northern Kenya
A highly sensitive immunoassay for interleukin‐6 in dried blood spots
OBJECTIVE: Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that is associated with the production of C-reactive protein, the acute phase response, and chronic low-grade inflammation. In this report, we describe and validate a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantifying IL-6 at low concentrations in samples of capillary whole blood collected from a simple finger stick and dried on filter paper (dried blood spots,…
Medicine (23 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Biology (15 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Environmental health (10 works) · Immunology (10 works) · Political science (9 works) · Child Nutrition and Water Access (8 works) · Demography (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works)