Opportunities for Enhancing Access and Efficacy of Peer Sponsorship in Substance Use Disorder Recovery

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are characterized by an inability to decrease a substance use (e.g., alcohol or opioids) despite negative repercussions. SUDs are clinically diagnosable, hazardous, and considered a public health issue. Sponsorship, a specialized type of peer mentorship, is vital in the recovery process and originates from 12-step fellowship programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). To investigate sponsorship relationship practices and to identify design opportunities for digitally-mediated peer support, we conducted 27 in-depth interviews with members of AA and NA. We identified five key sponsorship relationship practices relevant for designing social computing tools to support sponsorship and recovery: 1) assessing dyadic compatibility, 2) managing sponsorship with or without technology, 3) establishing boundaries, 4) building a peer support network, and 5) managing anonymity. We identify social computing and digitally-mediated design opportunities and implications

The HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale. XXVIII. Combining the Constraints on the Hubble Constant

Since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope nine years ago, Cepheid distances to 25 galaxies have been determined for the purpose of calibrating secondary distance indicators. A variety of these can now be calibrated, and the accompanying papers by Sakai, Kelson, Ferrarese, and Gibson employ the full set of 25 galaxies to consider the Tully-Fisher relation, the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies, Type Ia supernovae, and surface brightness fluctuations. When calibrated with Cepheid distances, each of these methods yields a measurement of the Hubble constant and a corresponding measurement uncertainty. We combine these measurements in this paper, together with a model of the velocity field, to yield the best available estimate of the value of H_0 within the range of these secondary distance indicators and its uncertainty. The result is H_0 = 71 +/- 6 km/sec/Mpc. The largest contributor to the uncertainty of this 67% confidence level result is the distance of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which has been assumed to be 50 +/- 3 kpc

An investigation of halogen bonding as a structure-directing interaction in dithiadiazolyl radicals

Published as part of a Crystal Growth and Design virtual special issue on Crystalline Molecular Materials: From Structure to Function.The preparation and characterization of the halo-functionalized dithiadiazolyl radicals p-XC6F4CNSSN (X = Br (1) or I (2)) are described. Compound 1 is trimorphic. The previously reported phase 1α (Z′ = 1) comprises monomeric radicals, whereas 1β comprises a mixture of one cis-oid π*−π* dimer and one monomer (Z′ = 3), and 1γ exhibits a single cis-oid dimer (Z′ = 2) in the asymmetric unit. We have only been able to isolate a single polymorph of 2, isomorphous with 1α. Both the bromo and iodo groups in 1 and 2 promote sigma-hole type interactions of the type C–X···N (X = Br, I), reflecting the increasing strength of this interaction for the heavier halo-derivatives. An analysis of the intermolecular forces is made using dispersion corrected density functional theory (DFT) (UM06-2X-D3/LACV3P*) and compared to a unified pair potential model (UNI) embodied in the crystallographic software Mercury. While there is a correlation between DFT and UNI force-field models, there are some discrepancies, although both reveal that a number of intermolecular contacts beyond the sum of the van der Waals radii are significant (>5 kJ mol–1). A natural bond order analysis of the intermolecular interactions reveals lone pair donation from the heterocyclic N atom to C–X or S–S σ* orbitals contributes to these intermolecular interactions with relative energies in the order C–I > SN-II > C–Br > SN-III. The magnetism of 2 reveals a broad maximum in χ around 20 K indicative of short-range antiferromagnetic interactions. These are supported by DFT calculations that reveal a set of three significant exchange interactions which propagate in two dimensions.We would like to acknowledge the NSERC DG program for financial support (J.M.R.) and C.F.I./O.R.F. for an infrastructure grant. M.A.N. would like to thank the NSERC for a CGS-M scholarship. J.C. acknowledges support from Grant PGC-2018−099024-B100. Additional support from Diputacion General de Aragon (DGA-M4) is also acknowledged. J.C and A.A. would like to acknowledge the use of Servicio General de Apoyo a la Investigacion-SAI, Universidad de Zaragoza.Peer reviewe

Nonsense-mediated decay regulates key components of homologous recombination.

Cells frequently experience DNA damage that requires repair by homologous recombination (HR). Proteins involved in HR are carefully coordinated to ensure proper and efficient repair without interfering with normal cellular processes. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rad55 functions in the early steps of HR and is regulated in response to DNA damage through phosphorylation by the Mec1 and Rad53 kinases of the DNA damage response. To further identify regulatory processes that target HR, we performed a high-throughput genetic interaction screen with RAD55 phosphorylation site mutants. Genes involved in the mRNA quality control process, nonsense-mediated decay (NMD), were found to genetically interact with rad55 phospho-site mutants. Further characterization revealed that RAD55 transcript and protein levels are regulated by NMD. Regulation of HR by NMD extends to multiple targets beyond RAD55, including RAD51, RAD54 and RAD57 Finally, we demonstrate that loss of NMD results in an increase in recombination rates and resistance to the DNA damaging agent methyl methanesulfonate, suggesting this pathway negatively regulates HR under normal growth conditions