Safety Rituals: How Women Cope with the Fear of Sexual Violence

In this study we focus on how women\u27s fear of sexual violence shapes their views on sexual assault and influences their use of safety strategies as well as how those safety strategies may restrict their use of time and space. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 participants who also journaled for one week on the topic of sexual violence. Data were analyzed through an inductive analysis approach. These women think about sexual violence as a widespread problem that affects them disproportionately more than it affects men; they engage in precautionary behaviors in a ritualistic manner; and their fear of sexual assault is restrictive. Safety rituals seem to help these women feel powerful, in control, and less anxious

Remote Sensing and Control of Phase Qubits

We demonstrate a remote sensing design of phase qubits by separating the control and readout circuits from the qubit loop. This design improves measurement reliability because the control readout chip can be fabricated using more robust materials and can be reused to test different qubit chips. Typical qubit measurements such as Rabi oscillations, spectroscopy, and excited-state energy relaxation are presented.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Rituals in unmarried couple relationships: An exploratory study

This study provides an understanding of rituals enacted in unmarried couple relationships. One hundred and twenty-nine individuals involved in unmarried relationships reported on their rituals in an online, open-ended questionnaire. A typology of 16 ritual types was developed, 12 of which have been shown to be common in marital relationships. Four new ritual categories, unique to unmarried relationships, emerged from the data: Gift-giving, helping each other/being supportive, future planning/daydreaming about the future, and family involvement. Implications for future research on couple rituals conclude the study

Revised Stellar Properties of Kepler Targets for the Q1-17 (DR25) Transit Detection Run

The determination of exoplanet properties and occurrence rates using Kepler data critically depends on our knowledge of the fundamental properties (such as temperature, radius and mass) of the observed stars. We present revised stellar properties for 197,096 Kepler targets observed between Quarters 1-17 (Q1-17), which were used for the final transiting planet search run by the Kepler Mission (Data Release 25, DR25). Similar to the Q1--16 catalog by Huber et al. the classifications are based on conditioning published atmospheric parameters on a grid of Dartmouth isochrones, with significant improvements in the adopted methodology and over 29,000 new sources for temperatures, surface gravities or metallicities. In addition to fundamental stellar properties the new catalog also includes distances and extinctions, and we provide posterior samples for each stellar parameter of each star. Typical uncertainties are ~27% in radius, ~17% in mass, and ~51% in density, which is somewhat smaller than previous catalogs due to the larger number of improved logg constraints and the inclusion of isochrone weighting when deriving stellar posterior distributions. On average, the catalog includes a significantly larger number of evolved solar-type stars, with an increase of 43.5% in the number of subgiants. We discuss the overall changes of radii and masses of Kepler targets as a function of spectral type, with particular focus on exoplanet host stars.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures. ApJS in pres

Human epicardial adipose tissue expresses a pathogenic profile of adipocytokines in patients with cardiovascular disease

Introduction: Inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease and is exacerbated with increased adiposity, particularly omental adiposity; however, the role of epicardial fat is poorly understood. Methods: For these studies the expression of inflammatory markers was assessed in epicardial fat biopsies from coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients using quantitative RT-PCR. Further, the effects of chronic medications, including statins, as well as peri-operative glucose, insulin and potassium infusion, on gene expression were also assessed. Circulating resistin, CRP, adiponectin and leptin levels were determined to assess inflammation. Results: The expression of adiponectin, resistin and other adipocytokine mRNAs were comparable to that in omental fat. Epicardial CD45 expression was significantly higher than control depots (p < 0.01) indicating significant infiltration of macrophages. Statin treated patients showed significantly lower epicardial expression of IL-6 mRNA, in comparison with the control abdominal depots (p < 0.001). The serum profile of CABG patients showed significantly higher levels of both CRP (control: 1.28 ± 1.57 μg/mL vs CABG: 9.11 ± 15.7 μg/mL; p < 0.001) and resistin (control: 10.53 ± 0.81 ng/mL vs CABG: 16.8 ± 1.69 ng/mL; p < 0.01) and significantly lower levels of adiponectin (control: 29.1 ± 14.8 μg/mL vs CABG: 11.9 ± 6.0 μg/mL; p < 0.05) when compared to BMI matched controls. Conclusion: Epicardial and omental fat exhibit a broadly comparable pathogenic mRNA profile, this may arise in part from macrophage infiltration into the epicardial fat. This study highlights that chronic inflammation occurs locally as well as systemically potentially contributing further to the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease

ZMYM2 inhibits NANOG-mediated reprogramming.

Background: NANOG is a homeodomain-containing transcription factor which forms one of the hubs in the pluripotency network and plays a key role in the reprogramming of somatic cells and epiblast stem cells to naïve pluripotency.  Studies have found that NANOG has many interacting partners and some of these were shown to play a role in its ability to mediate reprogramming. In this study, we set out to analyse the effect of NANOG interactors on the reprogramming process. Methods: Epiblast stem cells and somatic cells were reprogrammed to naïve pluripotency using MEK/ERK inhibitor PD0325901, GSK3β inhibitor CHIR99021 and Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor (together termed 2i Plus LIF). Zmym2 was knocked out using the CRISPR/Cas9 system or overexpressed using the PiggyBac system. Reprogramming was quantified after ZMYM2 deletion or overexpression, in diverse reprogramming systems. In addition, embryonic stem cell self renewal was quantified in differentiation assays after ZMYM2 removal or overexpression. Results: In this work, we identified ZMYM2/ZFP198, which physically associates with NANOG as a key negative regulator of NANOG-mediated reprogramming of both epiblast stem cells and somatic cells. In addition, ZMYM2 impairs the self renewal of embryonic stem cells and its overexpression promotes differentiation. Conclusions: We propose that ZMYM2 curtails NANOG's actions during the reprogramming of both somatic cells and epiblast stem cells and impedes embryonic stem cell self renewal, promoting differentiation.This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust through a Wellcome Trust Fellowship to J.C.R.S. [101861], Wellcome Trust Studentship to M.L. [079249], and a core funding grant jointly with the Medical Research Council (MRC) to the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute [079249]

Ivermectin Inhibits Growth of Chlamydia trachomatis in Epithelial Cells

Ivermectin is currently approved for treatment of both clinical and veterinary infections by nematodes, including Onchocerca cervicalis in horses and Onchocerca volvulus in humans. However, ivermectin has never been shown to be effective against bacterial pathogens. Here we show that ivermectin also inhibits infection of epithelial cells by the bacterial pathogen, Chlamydia trachomatis, at doses that could be envisioned clinically for sexually-transmitted or ocular infections by Chlamydia