Connected to Give: Key Findings

This is the first in a series of reports based upon the wealth of data from National Study of American Jewish Giving. The key findings represent the top level of information gleaned from the studies, but there is much more to be explored. In addition to findings that relate giving to demography and identity, there are additional data about specific populations, particular areas of interest, and individual modes of giving

Bombardier Enables Delivery of Short-Form Bomanins in the Drosophila Toll Response.

Toll mediates a robust and effective innate immune response across vertebrates and invertebrates. In Drosophila melanogaster, activation of Toll by systemic infection drives the accumulation of a rich repertoire of immune effectors in hemolymph, including the recently characterized Bomanins, as well as the classical antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Here we report the functional characterization of a Toll-induced hemolymph protein encoded by the bombardier (CG18067) gene. Using the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate a precise deletion of the bombardier transcriptional unit, we found that Bombardier is required for Toll-mediated defense against fungi and Gram-positive bacteria. Assaying cell-free hemolymph, we found that the Bomanin-dependent candidacidal activity is also dependent on Bombardier, but is independent of the antifungal AMPs Drosomycin and Metchnikowin. Using mass spectrometry, we demonstrated that deletion of bombardier results in the specific absence of short-form Bomanins from hemolymph. In addition, flies lacking Bombardier exhibited a defect in pathogen tolerance that we trace to an aberrant condition triggered by Toll activation. These results lead us to a model in which the presence of Bombardier in wild-type flies enables the proper folding, secretion, or intermolecular associations of short-form Bomanins, and the absence of Bombardier disrupts one or more of these steps, resulting in defects in both immune resistance and tolerance

Socioeconomic and demographic factors modify the association between informal caregiving and health in the Sandwich Generation

BACKGROUND: Nearly 50 million Americans provide informal care to an older relative or friend. Many are members of the “sandwich generation”, providing care for elderly parents and children simultaneously. Although evidence suggests that the negative health consequences of caregiving are more severe for sandwiched caregivers, little is known about how these associations vary by sociodemographic factors. METHODS: We abstracted data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to determine how the association between caregiving and health varies by sociodemographic factors, using ordinal logistic regression with interaction terms and stratification by number of children, income, and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: The association between informal caregiving and health varied by membership in the “sandwich generation,” income, and race/ethnicity. This association was significant among subjects with one (OR = 1.13, 95% CI [1.04, 1.24]) and two or more children (OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.09, 1.26]), but not in those without children (OR = 1.01, 95% CI [0.97, 1.05]). Associations were strongest in those earning $50,000-$75,000 annually, but these income-dependent associations varied by race/ethnicity. In Whites with two or more children, the strongest associations between caregiving and health occurred in lower income individuals. These trends were not observed for Whites without children. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the added burden of caregiving for both children and elderly relatives may be impacted by income and race/ethnicity. These differences should be considered when developing culturally appropriate interventions to improve caregiver health and maintain this vital component of the US health care system

Low and variable ecosystem calcification in a coral reef lagoon under natural acidification

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Limnology and Oceanography 63 (2018): 714–730, doi:10.1002/lno.10662.Laboratory‐based CO2 experiments and studies of naturally low pH coral reef ecosystems reveal negative impacts of ocean acidification on the calcifying communities that build coral reefs. Conversely, in Palau's low pH lagoons, coral cover is high, coral communities are diverse, and calcification rates of two reef‐building corals exhibit no apparent sensitivity to the strong natural gradient in pH and aragonite saturation state (Ωar). We developed two methods to quantify rates of Net Ecosystem Calcification (NEC), the ecosystem‐level balance between calcification and dissolution, in Risong Lagoon, where average daily pH is ∼ 7.9 and Ωar ∼ 2.7. While coral cover in the lagoon is within the range of other Pacific reefs (∼ 26%), NEC rates were among the lowest measured, averaging 25.9 ± 13.7 mmol m−2 d−1 over two 4 d study periods. NEC rates were highly variable, ranging from a low of 13.7 mmol m−2 d−1 in March 2012 to a high of 40.3 mmol m−2 d−1 in November 2013, despite no significant changes in temperature, salinity, inorganic nutrients, Ωar, or pH. Our results indicate that the coral reef community of Risong Lagoon produces just enough calcium carbonate to maintain net positive calcification but comes dangerously close to net zero or negative NEC (net dissolution). Identifying the factors responsible for low NEC rates as well as the drivers of NEC variability in naturally low pH reef systems are key to predicting their futures under 21st century climate change.This work was supported by NSF award 1220529 to A.L.C., S.J.L., and K.E.F.S. and a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Postdoctoral Scholarship to K.E.F.S

Doping effects on the electronic and structural properties of CoO2: An LSDA+U study

A systematic LSDA+U study of doping effects on the electronic and structural properties of single layer CoO2 is presented. Undoped CoO2 is a charge transfer insulator within LSDA+U and a metal with a high density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level within LSDA. (CoO2)$^{1.0-}$, on the other hand, is a band insulator with a gap of 2.2 eV. Systems with fractional doping are metals if no charge orderings are present. Due to the strong interaction between the doped electron and other correlated Co d electrons, the calculated electronic structure of (CoO2)$^{x-}$ depends sensitively on the doping level x. Zone center optical phonon energies are calculated under the frozen phonon approximation and are in good agreement with measured values. Softening of the $E_g$ phonon at doping x ~0.25 seems to indicate a strong electron-phonon coupling in this system. Possible intemediate spin states of Co ions, Na ordering, as well as magnetic and charge orderings in this system are also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

GW method with the self-consistent Sternheimer equation

We propose a novel approach to quasiparticle GW calculations which does not require the computation of unoccupied electronic states. In our approach the screened Coulomb interaction is evaluated by solving self-consistent linear-response Sternheimer equations, and the noninteracting Green's function is evaluated by solving inhomogeneous linear systems. The frequency-dependence of the screened Coulomb interaction is explicitly taken into account. In order to avoid the singularities of the screened Coulomb interaction the calculations are performed along the imaginary axis, and the results are analytically continued to the real axis through Pade' approximants. As a proof of concept we implemented the proposed methodology within the empirical pseudopotential formalism and we validated our implementation using silicon as a test case. We examine the advantages and limitations of our method and describe promising future directions.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Brain motor system function after chronic, complete spinal cord injury.

Most therapies under development to restore motor function after spinal cord injury (SCI) assume intact brain motor functions. To examine this assumption, 12 patients with chronic, complete SCI and 12 controls underwent functional MRI during attempted, and during imagined, right foot movement, each at two force levels. In patients with SCI, many features of normal motor system function were preserved, however, several departures from normal were apparent: (i) volume of activation was generally much reduced, e.g. 4-8% of normal in primary sensorimotor cortex, in the setting of twice normal variance in signal change; (ii) abnormal activation patterns were present, e.g. increased pallido-thalamocortical loop activity during attempted movement and abnormal processing in primary sensorimotor cortex during imagined movement; and (iii) modulation of function with change in task or in force level did not conform to patterns seen in controls, e.g. in controls, attempted movement activated more than imagined movement did within left primary sensorimotor cortex and right dorsal cerebellum, while imagined movement activated more than attempted movement did in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right precentral gyrus. These modulations were absent in patients with SCI. Many features of brain motor system function during foot movement persist after chronic complete SCI. However, substantial derangements of brain activation, poor modulation of function with change in task demands and emergence of pathological brain events were present in patients. Because brain function is central to voluntary movement, interventions that aim to improve motor function after chronic SCI likely also need to attend to these abnormalities of brain function

Measuring the Primordial Deuterium Abundance During the Cosmic Dark Ages

We discuss how measurements of fluctuations in the absorption of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons by neutral gas during the cosmic dark ages, at redshifts z ~ 7--200, could reveal the primordial deuterium abundance of the Universe. The strength of the cross-correlation of brightness-temperature fluctuations due to resonant absorption of CMB photons in the 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen with those due to resonant absorption of CMB photons in the 92-cm line of neutral deuterium is proportional to the fossil deuterium to hydrogen ratio [D/H] fixed during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). Although technically challenging, this measurement could provide the cleanest possible determination of [D/H], free from contamination by structure formation processes at lower redshifts, and has the potential to improve BBN constraints to the baryon density of the Universe \Omega_{b} h^2. We also present our results for the thermal spin-change cross-section for deuterium-hydrogen scattering, which may be useful in a more general context than we describe here.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let