Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Can Adversely Impact Domains of Sexual Function Such as Satisfaction with Sex Life

Background: Aspects of sexual health, which can be adversely affected by chronic disease, have been inadequately explored in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Aims: We evaluated patient-reported interest in sexual activity and satisfaction with sex life in a large cohort of IBD patients. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study within the Crohn?s and Colitis Foundation Partners Internet cohort. Sequential participants completed a 6-question supplemental online survey to examine sexual interest and satisfaction using the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System? (PROMIS?) Sexual Function and Satisfaction measures. One-sample t tests were used to compare interest and satisfaction scores to general population norms. Results: Among 2569 individuals, 1639 had Crohn?s disease (CD), 930 had ulcerative colitis (UC) or indeterminate colitis, and 71% were women. Mean PROMIS scores for sexual interest were comparable to the general US population in men (CD: 49 and UC: 48 vs. population mean 50) and women (CD: 41 and UC: 40 vs. population mean 42). However, sexual satisfaction scores were lower than the US population in men (CD: 48 and UC: 48 vs. 51) and women (CD: 47 and UC: 46 vs. 49), p < 0.01 for both. Older age, disease activity, depression, anxiety, and pain were associated with lower interest and satisfaction and lowered IBD-specific quality of life. Conclusions: IBD patients in a large online survey had similar levels of sexual interest but decreased sexual satisfaction compared to the general population. Exploring these sexual health domains during clinical encounters can aid in improving IBD quality of life

Variant-Specific Viral Kinetics in Acute COVID-19

Understanding variant-specific differences in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral kinetics may explain differences in transmission efficiency and provide insights on pathogenesis and prevention. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2 kinetics from nasal swabs across multiple variants (Alpha, Delta, Epsilon, Gamma) in placebo recipients of the ACTIV-2/A5401 trial. Delta variant infection led to the highest maximum viral load and shortest time from symptom onset to viral load peak. There were no significant differences in time to viral clearance across the variants. Viral decline was biphasic with first- and second-phase decays having half-lives of 11 hours and 2.5 days, respectively, with differences among variants, especially in the second phase. These results suggest that while variant-specific differences in viral kinetics exist, post-peak viral load all variants appeared to be efficiently cleared by the host. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT04518410

Measurement report: Understanding the seasonal cycle of Southern Ocean aerosols

Published: 29 March 2023The remoteness and extreme conditions of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic region have meant that observations in this region are rare, and typically restricted to summertime during research or resupply voyages. Observations of aerosols outside of the summer season are typically limited to long-term stations, such as Kennaook / Cape Grim (KCG; 40.7∘ S, 144.7∘ E), which is situated in the northern latitudes of the Southern Ocean, and Antarctic research stations, such as the Japanese operated Syowa (SYO; 69.0∘ S, 39.6∘ E). Measurements in the midlatitudes of the Southern Ocean are important, particularly in light of recent observations that highlighted the latitudinal gradient that exists across the region in summertime. Here we present 2 years (March 2016–March 2018) of observations from Macquarie Island (MQI; 54.5∘ S, 159.0∘ E) of aerosol (condensation nuclei larger than 10 nm, CN10) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN at various supersaturations) concentrations. This important multi-year data set is characterised, and its features are compared with the long-term data sets from KCG and SYO together with those from recent, regionally relevant voyages. CN10 concentrations were the highest at KCG by a factor of ∼50 % across all non-winter seasons compared to the other two stations, which were similar (summer medians of 530, 426 and 468 cm−3 at KCG, MQI and SYO, respectively). In wintertime, seasonal minima at KCG and MQI were similar (142 and 152 cm−3, respectively), with SYO being distinctly lower (87 cm−3), likely the result of the reduction in sea spray aerosol generation due to the sea ice ocean cover around the site. CN10 seasonal maxima were observed at the stations at different times of year, with KCG and MQI exhibiting January maxima and SYO having a distinct February high. Comparison of CCN0.5 data between KCG and MQI showed similar overall trends with summertime maxima and wintertime minima; however, KCG exhibited slightly (∼10 %) higher concentrations in summer (medians of 158 and 145 cm−3, respectively), whereas KCG showed ∼40 % lower concentrations than MQI in winter (medians of 57 and 92 cm−3, respectively). Spatial and temporal trends in the data were analysed further by contrasting data to coincident observations that occurred aboard several voyages of the RSV Aurora Australis and the RV Investigator. Results from this study are important for validating and improving our models and highlight the heterogeneity of this pristine region and the need for further long-term observations that capture the seasonal cycles.Ruhi S. Humphries, Melita D. Keywood, Jason P. Ward, James Harnwell, Simon P. Alexander, Andrew R. Klekociuk, Keiichiro Hara, Ian M. McRobert, Alain Protat, Joel Alroe, Luke T. Cravigan, Branka Miljevic, Zoran D. Ristovski, Robyn Schofield, Stephen R. Wilson, Connor J. Flynn, Gourihar R. Kulkarni, Gerald G. Mace, Greg M. McFarquhar, Scott D. Chambers, Alastair G. Williams, and Alan D. Griffith

Monoclonal antibody treatment drives rapid culture conversion in SARS-CoV-2 infection

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are among the treatments recommended for high-risk ambulatory persons with coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we study viral culture dynamics post-treatment in a subset of participants receiving the mAb bamlanivimab in the ACTIV-2 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04518410). Viral load by qPCR and viral culture are performed from anterior nasal swabs collected on study days 0 (day of treatment), 1, 2, 3, and 7. Treatment with mAbs results in rapid clearance of culturable virus. One day after treatment, 0 of 28 (0%) participants receiving mAbs and 16 of 39 (41%) receiving placebo still have culturable virus (p < 0.0001). Recrudescence of culturable virus is detected in three participants with emerging mAb resistance and viral RNA rebound. While further studies are necessary to fully define the relationship between shed culturable virus and transmission, these results raise the possibility that mAbs may offer immediate (household) and public-health benefits by reducing onward transmission., Using longitudinal samples from the ACTIV-2 clinical trial of the monoclonal antibody bamlinivimab, Boucau et al. investigate the duration of shedding culturable virus. Treatment with monoclonal antibody results in rapid clearance of culturable virus. The emergence of mutations in a subset of participants coincides with viral rebound and resurgent culturable virus

A resonant-term-based model including a nascent disk, precession, and oblateness: application to GJ 876

Investigations of two resonant planets orbiting a star or two resonant satellites orbiting a planet often rely on a few resonant and secular terms in order to obtain a representative quantitative description of the system's dynamical evolution. We present a semianalytic model which traces the orbital evolution of any two resonant bodies in a first- through fourth-order eccentricity or inclination-based resonance dominated by the resonant and secular arguments of the user's choosing. By considering the variation of libration width with different orbital parameters, we identify regions of phase space which give rise to different resonant ''depths,'' and propose methods to model libration profiles. We apply the model to the GJ 876 extrasolar planetary system, quantify the relative importance of the relevant resonant and secular contributions, and thereby assess the goodness of the common approximation of representing the system by just the presumably dominant terms. We highlight the danger in using ''order'' as the metric for accuracy in the orbital solution by revealing the unnatural libration centers produced by the second-order, but not first-order, solution, and by demonstrating that the true orbital solution lies somewhere ''in-between'' the third- and fourth-order solutions. We also present formulas used to incorporate perturbations from central-body oblateness and precession, and a protoplanetary or protosatellite thin disk with gaps, into a resonant system. We quantify these contributions to the GJ 876 system, and thereby highlight the conditions which must exist for multi-planet exosystems to be significantly influenced by such factors. We find that massive enough disks may convert resonant libration into circulation; such disk-induced signatures may provide constraints for future studies of exoplanet systems.Comment: 39 pages of body text, 21 figures, 5 tables, 1 appendix, accepted for publication in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom

Erratum: "A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo" (2021, ApJ, 909, 218)

[no abstract available

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society