Trans Adults Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: Quality of Life, Pandemic Impact, and Vaccine Preferences

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting marginalized communities, such as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), disabled individuals, and transgender/nonbinary (i.e., trans) individuals. As trans individuals may be multiply marginalized, it is necessary to examine within group differences among trans individuals of different genders, races, socioeconomic statuses, and abilities. This study examines the following research questions: (1) What is the quality of life of trans adults during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How does the self-reported impact of the pandemic vary across groups within the trans community? (3) What preferences do trans adults have regarding receiving a COVID-19 vaccine? Survey data were collected in August/September of 2020. Among a sample of 449 trans adults, findings suggest that the profound impact of the pandemic was not consistent across all community members. Being a woman predicted a higher self-reported impact of the pandemic while being a masc(uline) white respondent tended to predict a lower impact of the pandemic. Higher income was associated with a higher quality of life and being a disabled white respondent predicted a lower quality of life. The majority (99%) of the sample reported wanting to receive a COVID-19 vaccine should one become available. Implications for practice include the importance of considering the holistic experiences of clients and community members, as opposed to having homogenized perspectives of even subsets of the trans community. Future research related to barriers faced when attempting to access a vaccine is needed to inform future public health responses to epidemics/pandemics impacting this community.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun

Spherically symmetric Yang-Mills solutions in a (4+n)- dimensional space-time

We consider the Einstein-Yang-Mills Lagrangian in a (4+n)-dimensional space-time. Assuming the matter and metric fields to be independent of the n extra coordinates, a spherical symmetric Ansatz for the fields leads to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations. We find that for n > 1 only solutions with either one non-zero Higgs field or with all Higgs fields constant exist. We construct the analytic solutions which fulfill this conditions for arbitrary n, namely the Einstein-Maxwell-dilaton solutions. We also present generic solutions of the effective 4-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs-dilaton model, which possesses n Higgs triplets coupled in a specific way to n independent dilaton fields. These solutions are the abelian Einstein-Maxwell- dilaton solutions and analytic non-abelian solutions, which have diverging Higgs fields. In addition, we construct numerically asymptotically flat and finite energy solutions for n=2.Comment: 15 Latex pages, 4 eps figures; v2: discussion of results revisite

Fully implicit frictional dynamics with soft constraints

Dynamics simulation with frictional contacts is important for a wide range of applications, from cloth simulation to object manipulation. Recent methods using smoothed friction forces have enabled robust and differentiable simulation of elastodynamics with friction. However, the resulting frictional behaviors can be qualitatively inaccurate and may not converge to analytic solutions. Here we propose an alternative, fully implicit, formulation for simulating elastodynamics subject to frictional contacts with realistic friction behavior. Furthermore, we demonstrate how higher-order time integration can be used in our method, as well as in incremental potential methods. We develop an inexact Newton method with forward-mode automatic differentiation that simplifies the implementation and improves performance. Finally, we show how our method can be extended to respond to volume changes using a unified penalty function derived from first principles and capable of emulating compressible as well as nearly incompressible media

Orbits in the Field of a Gravitating Magnetic Monopole

Orbits of test particles and light rays are an important tool to study the properties of space-time metrics. Here we systematically study the properties of the gravitational field of a globally regular magnetic monopole in terms of the geodesics of test particles and light. The gravitational field depends on two dimensionless parameters, defined as ratios of the characteristic mass scales present. For critical values of these parameters the resulting metric coefficients develop a singular behavior, which has profound influence on the properties of the resulting space-time and which is clearly reflected in the orbits of the test particles and light rays.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in GR

Precision Mass Measurements of 129-131Cd and Their Impact on Stellar Nucleosynthesis via the Rapid Neutron Capture Process

Masses adjacent to the classical waiting-point nuclide 130Cd have been measured by using the Penning- trap spectrometer ISOLTRAP at ISOLDE/CERN. We find a significant deviation of over 400 keV from earlier values evaluated by using nuclear beta-decay data. The new measurements show the reduction of the N = 82 shell gap below the doubly magic 132Sn. The nucleosynthesis associated with the ejected wind from type-II supernovae as well as from compact object binary mergers is studied, by using state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations. We find a consistent and direct impact of the newly measured masses on the calculated abundances in the A = 128 - 132 region and a reduction of the uncertainties from the precision mass input data

Probing the N = 32 shell closure below the magic proton number Z = 20: Mass measurements of the exotic isotopes 52,53K

The recently confirmed neutron-shell closure at N = 32 has been investigated for the first time below the magic proton number Z = 20 with mass measurements of the exotic isotopes 52,53K, the latter being the shortest-lived nuclide investigated at the online mass spectrometer ISOLTRAP. The resulting two-neutron separation energies reveal a 3 MeV shell gap at N = 32, slightly lower than for 52Ca, highlighting the doubly-magic nature of this nuclide. Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Boguliubov and ab initio Gorkov-Green function calculations are challenged by the new measurements but reproduce qualitatively the observed shell effect.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Lst4, the yeast Fnip1/2 orthologue, is a DENN-family protein.

The folliculin/Fnip complex has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in the mechanisms underlying Birt-Hogg-Dubé (BHD) syndrome, a rare inherited cancer syndrome. Lst4 has been previously proposed to be the Fnip1/2 orthologue in yeast and therefore a member of the DENN family. In order to confirm this, we solved the crystal structure of the N-terminal region of Lst4 from Kluyveromyces lactis and show it contains a longin domain, the first domain of the full DENN module. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Lst4 through its DENN domain interacts with Lst7, the yeast folliculin orthologue. Like its human counterpart, the Lst7/Lst4 complex relocates to the vacuolar membrane in response to nutrient starvation, most notably in carbon starvation. Finally, we express and purify the recombinant Lst7/Lst4 complex and show that it exists as a 1 : 1 heterodimer in solution. This work confirms the membership of Lst4 and the Fnip proteins in the DENN family, and provides a basis for using the Lst7/Lst4 complex to understand the molecular function of folliculin and its role in the pathogenesis of BHD syndrome.AP, BKB and RKN were supported by the Myrovlytis Trust. DBA was supported by a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship (APP1072476). LHW was supported by Medical Research Council (MRC) studentship, MR/J006580/1 and TPL by University College London. SD was supported by Fondation de France, La Ligue National contre le Cancer (Comité de Paris / Ile-de-France and Comité de l’Oise); TLB and NZ thank the University of Cambridge and The Wellcome Trust for facilities and support.This is the final version of the article. It was first available from Royal Society Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.15017

New stable phase of non uniform black strings in AdSd{AdS}_d

We consider the non uniform $AdS$ black string equations in arbitrary number of dimension in a perturbative approach up to order 2 and in a non perturbative. We restrict the study in the perturbative approach to the backreacting modes, since they provide the first relevant corrections on the thermodynamical quantities of the solutions. We also present some preliminary results in the construction of non-perturbative solutions, in particular, we present a first part of the non uniform - uniform black string phase diagram. Our results suggests the existence of a new stable phase for $AdS$ non uniform black strings, namely long non uniform black string, with the extra direction length of the order of the $AdS$ curvature.Comment: Results extended. 14 pages, 5 figure