When Self-Care Is Not Enough: Reflections on How to Make Trauma-Intensive Clinical Work More Sustainable

As a psychology resident on the psychiatry consultation-liaison service at a trauma center, I was asked by another trainee how I cope with the devastating cases of traumatic injury and abuse that we witnessed regularly on the service. This trainee’s courageous question about how we as providers cope sustainably with bearing witness to trauma coincided with my own reflection on the limits of “self-care” as it is often discussed and practiced in human service professions. In this article, I argue that an activity-based approach to self-care is not enough for providers in trauma-intensive service settings and must be complemented with an ongoing, self-caring engagement with the existential impact of bearing witness to trauma. Part of this impact is the “unspeakable” nature of trauma, which is most profound for victims, but is also an important consideration for bystanders, helping professionals, and larger systems of care. Major dialectical tensions of bearing witness to trauma as a provider (such as between denial and awareness, problem solving and acceptance) are described, with reflection on ways that trainees can practice the integration of caring for both self and others in their encounters with trauma survivors. Concluding recommendations are offered for a trauma-informed theory and practice of self-care for trainees, training programs, and the field

Dynamics of Wetting Fronts in Porous Media

We propose a new phenomenological approach for describing the dynamics of wetting front propagation in porous media. Unlike traditional models, the proposed approach is based on dynamic nature of the relation between capillary pressure and medium saturation. We choose a modified phase-field model of solidification as a particular case of such dynamic relation. We show that in the traveling wave regime the results obtained from our approach reproduce those derived from the standard model of flow in porous media. In more general case, the proposed approach reveals the dependence of front dynamics upon the flow regime.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revte

IFNL3 (IL28B) favorable genotype escapes hepatitis C virus-induced microRNAs and mRNA decay

The IFNL3 (IL28B) gene has received immense attention in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) field as multiple independent genome-wide association studies identified a strong association between polymorphisms near the IFNL3 gene and HCV clearance. However, the mechanism underlying this association has remained elusive. In this study, we report the identification of a functional polymorphism (rs4803217) located in the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of the IFNL3 mRNA that dictates transcript stability. This polymorphism influences AU-rich element-mediated decay as well as the binding of HCV-induced microRNAs during infection. Together, these pathways mediate robust repression of the unfavorable IFNL3 genotype. These data reveal a novel mechanism by which HCV attenuates the antiviral response and uncover new potential therapeutic targets for HCV treatment

Mechanostimulation of Medicago truncatula leads to enhanced levels of jasmonic acid

Wounding of plants leads to endogenous rise of jasmonic acid (JA) accompanied with the expression of a distinct set of genes. Among them are those coding for the allene oxide cyclase (AOC) that catalyses a regulatory step in JA biosynthesis, and for 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase 2 (DXS2), an enzyme involved in isoprenoid biosynthesis. To address the question how roots and shoots of Medicago truncatula respond to mechanostimulation and wounding, M. truncatula plants were analysed in respect to JA levels as well as MtAOC1 and MtDXS2-1 transcript accumulation. Harvest-caused mechanostimulation resulted in a strong, but transient increase in JA level in roots and shoots followed by a transient increase in MtAOC1 transcript accumulation. Additional wounding of either shoots or roots led to further increased JA and MtAOC1 transcript levels in shoots, but not in roots. In situ hybridization revealed a cell-specific transcript accumulation of MtAOC1 after mechanostimulation in companion cells of the vascular tissue of the stem. AOC protein, however, was found to occur constitutively in vascular bundles. Further, transcript accumulation of MtDXS2-1 was similar to that of MtAOC1 in shoots, but its transcript levels were not enhanced in roots. Repeated touching of shoots increased MtAOC1 transcript levels and led to significantly shorter shoots and increased biomass. In conclusion, M. truncatula plants respond very sensitively to mechanostimulation with enhanced JA levels and altered transcript accumulation, which might contribute to the altered phenotype after repeated touching of plants

Stochastic Growth Equations and Reparametrization Invariance

It is shown that, by imposing reparametrization invariance, one may derive a variety of stochastic equations describing the dynamics of surface growth and identify the physical processes responsible for the various terms. This approach provides a particularly transparent way to obtain continuum growth equations for interfaces. It is straightforward to derive equations which describe the coarse grained evolution of discrete lattice models and analyze their small gradient expansion. In this way, the authors identify the basic mechanisms which lead to the most commonly used growth equations. The advantages of this formulation of growth processes is that it allows one to go beyond the frequently used no-overhang approximation. The reparametrization invariant form also displays explicitly the conservation laws for the specific process and all the symmetries with respect to space-time transformations which are usually lost in the small gradient expansion. Finally, it is observed, that the knowledge of the full equation of motion, beyond the lowest order gradient expansion, might be relevant in problems where the usual perturbative renormalization methods fail.Comment: 42 pages, Revtex, no figures. To appear in Rev. of Mod. Phy

Control of intestinal stem cell function and proliferation by mitochondrial pyruvate metabolism.

Most differentiated cells convert glucose to pyruvate in the cytosol through glycolysis, followed by pyruvate oxidation in the mitochondria. These processes are linked by the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC), which is required for efficient mitochondrial pyruvate uptake. In contrast, proliferative cells, including many cancer and stem cells, perform glycolysis robustly but limit fractional mitochondrial pyruvate oxidation. We sought to understand the role this transition from glycolysis to pyruvate oxidation plays in stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Loss of the MPC in Lgr5-EGFP-positive stem cells, or treatment of intestinal organoids with an MPC inhibitor, increases proliferation and expands the stem cell compartment. Similarly, genetic deletion of the MPC in Drosophila intestinal stem cells also increases proliferation, whereas MPC overexpression suppresses stem cell proliferation. These data demonstrate that limiting mitochondrial pyruvate metabolism is necessary and sufficient to maintain the proliferation of intestinal stem cells

Molecular and genetic control of plant thermomorphogenesis

Temperature is a major factor governing the distribution and seasonal behaviour of plants. Being sessile, plants are highly responsive to small differences in temperature and adjust their growth and development accordingly. The suite of morphological and architectural changes induced by high ambient temperatures, below the heat-stress range, is collectively called thermomorphogenesis. Understanding the molecular genetic circuitries underlying thermomorphogenesis is particularly relevant in the context of climate change, as this knowledge will be key to rational breeding for thermo-tolerant crop varieties. Until recently, the fundamental mechanisms of temperature perception and signalling remained unknown. Our understanding of temperature signalling is now progressing, mainly by exploiting the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The transcription factor PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) has emerged as a critical player in regulating phytohormone levels and their activity. To control thermomorphogenesis, multiple regulatory circuits are in place to modulate PIF4 levels, activity and downstream mechanisms. Thermomorphogenesis is integrally governed by various light signalling pathways, the circadian clock, epigenetic mechanisms and chromatin-level regulation. In this Review, we summarize recent progress in the field and discuss how the emerging knowledge in Arabidopsis may be transferred to relevant crop systems

Searching for gravitational waves from known pulsars

We present upper limits on the amplitude of gravitational waves from 28 isolated pulsars using data from the second science run of LIGO. The results are also expressed as a constraint on the pulsars' equatorial ellipticities. We discuss a new way of presenting such ellipticity upper limits that takes account of the uncertainties of the pulsar moment of inertia. We also extend our previous method to search for known pulsars in binary systems, of which there are about 80 in the sensitive frequency range of LIGO and GEO 600.Comment: Accepted by CQG for the proceeding of GWDAW9, 7 pages, 2 figure