With a Little Help from Our Friends: Social Support as a Source of Well-being and of Coping with Stress

The relationship between one\u27s psycho-emotional and physiological health has long been of interest to social scientists. While many factors have been examined for their impact on causation and prevention, over the past two decades the concepts of social support, stress and well-being have undergone much scrutiny. In this article the authors provide empirical data to enhance our understanding of the interrelatedness of these three concepts. Based on the findings from a study of stress and health in organizations, a model is proposed which elucidates some of the conditions under which social support networks mediate the impact of stress on psychological well-being

Structure and functional motifs of GCR1, the only plant protein with a GPCR fold?

Whether GPCRs exist in plants is a fundamental biological question. Interest in deorphanizing new G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), arises because of their importance in signaling. Within plants, this is controversial as genome analysis has identified 56 putative GPCRs, including GCR1 which is reportedly a remote homologue to class A, B and E GPCRs. Of these, GCR2, is not a GPCR; more recently it has been proposed that none are, not even GCR1. We have addressed this disparity between genome analysis and biological evidence through a structural bioinformatics study, involving fold recognition methods, from which only GCR1 emerges as a strong candidate. To further probe GCR1, we have developed a novel helix alignment method, which has been benchmarked against the the class A – class B - class F GPCR alignments. In addition, we have presented a mutually consistent set of alignments of GCR1 homologues to class A, class B and class F GPCRs, and shown that GCR1 is closer to class A and /or class B GPCRs than class A, class B or class F GPCRs are to each other. To further probe GCR1, we have aligned transmembrane helix 3 of GCR1 to each of the 6 GPCR classes. Variability comparisons provide additional evidence that GCR1 homologues have the GPCR fold. From the alignments and a GCR1 comparative model we have identified motifs that are common to GCR1, class A, B and E GPCRs. We discuss the possibilities that emerge from this controversial evidence that GCR1 has a GPCR fol

Black Holes in Einstein-Aether Theory

We study black hole solutions in general relativity coupled to a unit timelike vector field dubbed the "aether". To be causally isolated a black hole interior must trap matter fields as well as all aether and metric modes. The theory possesses spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 modes whose speeds depend on four coupling coefficients. We find that the full three-parameter family of local spherically symmetric static solutions is always regular at a metric horizon, but only a two-parameter subset is regular at a spin-0 horizon. Asymptotic flatness imposes another condition, leaving a one-parameter family of regular black holes. These solutions are compared to the Schwarzschild solution using numerical integration for a special class of coupling coefficients. They are very close to Schwarzschild outside the horizon for a wide range of couplings, and have a spacelike singularity inside, but differ inside quantitatively. Some quantities constructed from the metric and aether oscillate in the interior as the singularity is approached. The aether is at rest at spatial infinity and flows into the black hole, but differs significantly from the the 4-velocity of freely-falling geodesics.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor editing; v3: corrected overall sign in twist formula and an error in the equation for the aether stress tensor. Results unchanged since correct form was used in calculations; v4: corrected minor typ

Identification and Characterisation of an Iron-Responsive Candidate Probiotic

Background: Iron is an essential cofactor in almost all biological systems. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB), frequently employed as probiotics, are unusual in having little or no requirement for iron. Iron in the human body is sequestered by transferrins and lactoferrin, limiting bacterial growth. An increase in the availability of iron in the intestine by bleeding, surgery, or under stress leads to an increase in the growth and virulence of many pathogens. Under these high iron conditions, LAB are rapidly out-competed; for the levels of probiotic bacteria to be maintained under high iron conditions they must be able to respond by increasing growth rate to compete with the normal flora. Despite this, iron-responsive genera are poorly characterised as probiotics. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, we show that a panel of probiotics are not able to respond to increased iron availability, and identify an isolate of Streptococcus thermophilus that can increase growth rate in response to increased iron availability. The isolate of S. thermophilus selected was able to reduce epithelial cell death as well as NF-kB signalling and IL-8 production triggered by pathogens. It was capable of crossing an epithelial cell barrier in conjunction with E. coli and downregulating Th1 and Th17 responses in primary human intestinal leukocytes. Conclusions/Significance: We propose that an inability to compete with potential pathogens under conditions of high iron availability such as stress and trauma may contribute to the lack of efficacy of many LAB-based probiotics in treatin

Mid-Infrared High-Contrast Imaging of HD 114174 B : An Apparent Age Discrepancy in a "Sirius-Like" Binary System

We present new observations of the faint "Sirius-like" companion discovered to orbit HD 114174. Previous attempts to image HD 114174 B at mid-infrared wavelengths using NIRC2 at Keck have resulted in a non-detection. Our new L'-band observations taken with the Large Binocular Telescope and LMIRCam recover the companion ($\Delta L$ = 10.15 $\pm$ 0.15 mag, $\rho$ = 0.675'' $\pm$ 0.016'') with a high signal-to-noise ratio (10 $\sigma$). This measurement represents the deepest L' high-contrast imaging detection at sub-arcsecond separations to date, including extrasolar planets. We confirm that HD 114174 B has near-infrared colors consistent with the interpretation of a cool white dwarf ($J-L'$ = 0.76 $\pm$ 0.19 mag, $K-L'$ = 0.64 $\pm$ 0.20). New model fits to the object's spectral energy distribution indicate a temperature $T_{\rm eff}$ = 4260 $\pm$ 360 K, surface gravity log g = 7.94 $\pm$ 0.03, a cooling age t$_{c} \approx$ 7.8 Gyr, and mass $M$ = 0.54 $\pm$ 0.01 $M_{\odot}$. We find that the cooling age given by theoretical atmospheric models do not agree with the age of HD 114174 A derived from both isochronological and gyrochronological analyses. We speculate on possible scenarios to explain the apparent age discrepancy between the primary and secondary. HD 114174 B is a nearby benchmark white dwarf that will ultimately enable a dynamical mass estimate through continued Doppler and astrometric monitoring. Efforts to characterize its physical properties in detail will test theoretical atmospheric models and improve our understanding of white dwarf evolution, cooling, and progenitor masses.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letter

Improving the LSST dithering pattern and cadence for dark energy studies

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will explore the entire southern sky over 10 years starting in 2022 with unprecedented depth and time sampling in six filters, $ugrizy$. Artificial power on the scale of the 3.5 deg LSST field-of-view will contaminate measurements of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), which fall at the same angular scale at redshift $z \sim 1$. Using the HEALPix framework, we demonstrate the impact of an "un-dithered" survey, in which $17\%$ of each LSST field-of-view is overlapped by neighboring observations, generating a honeycomb pattern of strongly varying survey depth and significant artificial power on BAO angular scales. We find that adopting large dithers (i.e., telescope pointing offsets) of amplitude close to the LSST field-of-view radius reduces artificial structure in the galaxy distribution by a factor of $\sim$10. We propose an observing strategy utilizing large dithers within the main survey and minimal dithers for the LSST Deep Drilling Fields. We show that applying various magnitude cutoffs can further increase survey uniformity. We find that a magnitude cut of $r < 27.3$ removes significant spurious power from the angular power spectrum with a minimal reduction in the total number of observed galaxies over the ten-year LSST run. We also determine the effectiveness of the observing strategy for Type Ia SNe and predict that the main survey will contribute $\sim$100,000 Type Ia SNe. We propose a concentrated survey where LSST observes one-third of its main survey area each year, increasing the number of main survey Type Ia SNe by a factor of $\sim$1.5, while still enabling the successful pursuit of other science drivers.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, published in SPIE proceedings; corrected typo in equation

How safe is your curry? Food allergy awareness of restaurant staff

Background: Incidents of severe and fatal anaphylaxis to accidentally ingested food allergens are increasing. Individuals are more likely to encounter difficulties when eating away from home. In restaurants, front-of-house and kitchen staff may be called upon to provide information about ingredients or ensure certain food allergens are excluded from dishes. Following a series of reactions related to the accidental ingestion of peanuts in curries we assessed food allergy awareness and allergen avoidance practices amongst the staff of Asian-Indian restaurants. Methods: A questionnaire survey was administered by telephone to one member of staff in each restaurant. Results: Fifty percent (40/80) of restaurants participated. Responders included managers, owners, waiters and chefs. Most (90%) had received food hygiene training, but only 15% food allergy training. 25% could name three common food allergens. 3 in 4 listed nuts, but less than 1in 5 mentioned peanuts. Common misunderstandings included 60% of staff believing an individual experiencing an allergic reaction should drink water to dilute the allergen. A less prevalent, but perhaps more concerning, was the misunderstanding that cooking food would prevent it causing an allergic reaction (25%). Despite poor knowledge, all respondents were comfortable and 65% were “very comfortable” with providing a “safe” meal for a customer with a food allergy. 60% expressed interest in future food allergy training. Conclusions: Despite high confidence in their own understanding of allergy, many staff lacked the knowledge to provide “safe” meals for food allergic customers. Traditionally tree nuts are a common ingredient in Asian-Indian dishes cuisine and there was widespread, but not universal, awareness of tree nuts as a common allergen. Peanuts were less commonly recognised as a common allergen, an observation of extreme concern as peanuts are being substituted for tree nuts as they are cheaper and avoid having to inflate meal prices. Our data highlights the need for greater training of restaurant staff. In parallel, food allergic customers need to exercise vigilance when making meal choices and develop skills to order a safe meal. The management of allergy is multifaceted, and this study indicates the importance of health professionals working beyond the clinical setting to collaborate with colleagues in the hospitality industry, public health and environmental health in coordinated endeavours to improve patient safety