Third sector organizations and earthquake recovery planning in Christchurch, New Zealand

On September 4, 2010, an earthquake struck rural Canterbury and the most deadly of over 2,000 aftershocks devastated the Christchurch Central Business District on February 22, 2011 (Ardagh et al. 2012). Questions have arisen regarding population dynamics (Love 2011), marginalized groups, health and social care, and overall recovery efforts. Addressing some of these concerns are various non-profit, non-governmental, and faith based groups, collectively referred to as Third Sector Organizations (TSOs). By providing an alternative to and back-stopping government and private health and social services, TSOs are able to build resiliency following a natural disaster, and are especially able to identify and address unmet needs within their target audiences and maintain a sense of community within their operating areas. The nature of community recovery, also changes the role of TSOs in formal and grassroots efforts over time. In New Zealand, TSOs have shared community health burdens with government and private practices since the 1990s (Larner and Craig 2005) and have championed healthcare policy measures for ethnic minorities (Came 2014). Nevertheless, the earthquakes have presented challenges to TSOs. An inventory of 92 TSOs four months after the earthquakes, 106 one year after, and 454 two years after by Carlton and Vallance (2013) shows that although many TSOs have emerged to address earthquake related issues, other TSOs may have been unable to re-establish themselves outside areas with earthquake damage found to be too severe to inhabit by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA). Others reported “burn-out” and 52 were inactive or closed because of shifting needs during recovery. This research identifies shared experiences across the third sector in Canterbury to illuminate shifting roles in mid to long-term earthquake recovery

Alterations to the Gastrointestinal Microbiome Associated with Methamphetamine Use among Young Men who have Sex with Men.

Methamphetamine (MA) use is a major public health problem in the United States, especially among people living with HIV (PLWH). Many MA-induced neurotoxic effects are mediated by inflammation and gut microbiota may play a role in this process, yet the effects of MA on the microbiome have not been adequately explored. Therefore, we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on rectal swab samples from 381 men who have sex with men, 48% of whom were PLWH and 41% of whom used MA. We compared microbiome composition between MA users and non-users while testing for potential interactions with HIV and controlling for numerous confounders using inverse probability of treatment weighting. We found that MA use explained significant variation in overall composition (R2 = 0.005, p = 0.008) and was associated with elevated Finegoldia, Parvimonas, Peptoniphilus, and Porphyromonas and reduced Butyricicoccus and Faecalibacterium, among others. Genera including Actinomyces and Streptobacillus interacted with HIV status, such that they were increased in HIV+ MA users. Finegoldia and Peptoniphilus increased with increasing frequency of MA use, among others. In summary, MA use was associated with a microbial imbalance favoring pro-inflammatory bacteria, including some with neuroactive potential and others that have previously been associated with poor HIV outcomes

Breast milk and in utero transmission of HIV-1 select for envelope variants with unique molecular signatures

Additional file 5: Figure S5. Representative CD4 infectivity curves using Affinofile cells for IUT (top) and BMT (bottom) maternal–infant pairs. Affinofile cells were induced to generate a 100-fold range of CD4 surface density (ABS/cell) and infected with 2000 IU pseudotyped virus. Percent infection was measured as the percent luciferase relative to infected and maximally induced Affinofile cells. Data shown are representative curves among 3–4 experimental replicates

Disks and Outflows in the Intermediate-mass Star Forming Region NGC 2071 IR

We present ALMA band 6/7 (1.3 mm/0.87 mm) and VLA Ka band (9 mm) observations toward NGC 2071 IR, an intermediate-mass star forming region. We characterize the continuum and associated molecular line emission towards the most luminous protostars, i.e., IRS1 and IRS3, on ~100 au (0. 2") scales. IRS1 is partly resolved in millimeter and centimeter continuum, which shows a potential disk. IRS3 has a well resolved disk appearance in millimeter continuum and is further resolved into a close binary system separated by ~40 au at 9 mm. Both sources exhibit clear velocity gradients across their disk major axes in multiple spectral lines including C18O, H2CO, SO, SO2, and complex organic molecules like CH3OH, 13CH3OH and CH3OCHO. We use an analytic method to fit the Keplerian rotation of the disks, and give constraints on physical parameters with a MCMC routine. The IRS3 binary system is estimated to have a total mass of 1.4-1.5$M_\odot$. IRS1 has a central mass of 3-5$M_\odot$ based on both kinematic modeling and its spectral energy distribution, assuming that it is dominated by a single protostar. For both IRS1 and IRS3, the inferred ejection directions from different tracers, including radio jet, water maser, molecular outflow, and H2 emission, are not always consistent, and for IRS1, these can be misaligned by ~50$^{\circ}$. IRS3 is better explained by a single precessing jet. A similar mechanism may be present in IRS1 as well but an unresolved multiple system in IRS1 is also possible.Comment: 36 pages, 21 figures, accepted by Ap

The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. IV. Unveiling the Embedded Intermediate-Mass Protostar and Disk within OMC2-FIR3/HOPS-370

We present ALMA (0.87 and 1.3 mm) and VLA (9 mm) observations toward the candidate intermediate-mass protostar OMC2-FIR3 (HOPS-370; L_(bol) ~ 314 L_⊙) at ~0."1 (40 au) resolution for the continuum emission and ~0."25 (100 au) resolution of nine molecular lines. The dust continuum observed with ALMA at 0.87 and 1.3 mm resolves a near edge-on disk toward HOPS-370 with an apparent radius of ~100 au. The VLA observations detect both the disk in dust continuum and free–free emission extended along the jet direction. The ALMA observations of molecular lines (H₂CO, SO, CH₃OH, ¹³CO, C¹⁸O, NS, and H¹³CN) reveal rotation of the apparent disk surrounding HOPS-370 orthogonal to the jet/outflow direction. We fit radiative transfer models to both the dust continuum structure of the disk and molecular line kinematics of the inner envelope and disk for the H₂CO, CH₃OH, NS, and SO lines. The central protostar mass is determined to be ~2.5 M_⊙ with a disk radius of ~94 au, when fit using combinations of the H₂CO, CH₃OH, NS, and SO lines, consistent with an intermediate-mass protostar. Modeling of the dust continuum and spectral energy distribution yields a disk mass of 0.035 M_⊙ (inferred dust+gas) and a dust disk radius of 62 au; thus, the dust disk may have a smaller radius than the gas disk, similar to Class II disks. In order to explain the observed luminosity with the measured protostar mass, HOPS-370 must be accreting at a rate of (1.7−3.2) × 10⁻⁵ M_⊙ yr⁻¹

Large-scale genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of longitudinal change in adult lung function.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous loci influencing cross-sectional lung function, but less is known about genes influencing longitudinal change in lung function. METHODS: We performed GWAS of the rate of change in forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) in 14 longitudinal, population-based cohort studies comprising 27,249 adults of European ancestry using linear mixed effects model and combined cohort-specific results using fixed effect meta-analysis to identify novel genetic loci associated with longitudinal change in lung function. Gene expression analyses were subsequently performed for identified genetic loci. As a secondary aim, we estimated the mean rate of decline in FEV1 by smoking pattern, irrespective of genotypes, across these 14 studies using meta-analysis. RESULTS: The overall meta-analysis produced suggestive evidence for association at the novel IL16/STARD5/TMC3 locus on chromosome 15 (P  =  5.71 × 10(-7)). In addition, meta-analysis using the five cohorts with ≥3 FEV1 measurements per participant identified the novel ME3 locus on chromosome 11 (P  =  2.18 × 10(-8)) at genome-wide significance. Neither locus was associated with FEV1 decline in two additional cohort studies. We confirmed gene expression of IL16, STARD5, and ME3 in multiple lung tissues. Publicly available microarray data confirmed differential expression of all three genes in lung samples from COPD patients compared with controls. Irrespective of genotypes, the combined estimate for FEV1 decline was 26.9, 29.2 and 35.7 mL/year in never, former, and persistent smokers, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this large-scale GWAS, we identified two novel genetic loci in association with the rate of change in FEV1 that harbor candidate genes with biologically plausible functional links to lung function

The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. I. Identifying and Characterizing the Protostellar Content of the OMC-2 FIR4 and OMC-2 FIR3 Regions

We present ALMA (0.87~mm) and VLA (9~mm) observations toward OMC2-FIR4 and OMC2-FIR3 within the Orion integral-shaped filament that are thought to be the nearest regions of intermediate mass star formation. We characterize the continuum sources within these regions on $\sim$40~AU (0\farcs1) scales and associated molecular line emission at a factor of $\sim$30 better resolution than previous observations at similar wavelengths. We identify six compact continuum sources within OMC2-FIR4, four in OMC2-FIR3, and one additional source just outside OMC2-FIR4. This continuum emission is tracing the inner envelope and/or disk emission on less than 100~AU scales. HOPS-108 is the only protostar in OMC2-FIR4 that exhibits emission from high-excitation transitions of complex organic molecules (e.g., methanol and other lines) coincident with the continuum emission. HOPS-370 in OMC2-FIR3 with L~$\sim$~360~\lsun, also exhibits emission from high-excitation methanol and other lines. The methanol emission toward these two protostars is indicative of temperatures high enough to thermally evaporate methanol from icy dust grains; overall these protostars have characteristics similar to hot corinos. We do not identify a clear outflow from HOPS-108 in \twco, but find evidence of interaction between the outflow/jet from HOPS-370 and the OMC2-FIR4 region. The multitude of observational constraints indicate that HOPS-108 is likely a low to intermediate-mass protostar in its main mass accretion phase and it is the most luminous protostar in OMC2-FIR4. The high resolution data presented here are essential for disentangling the embedded protostars from their surrounding dusty environments and characterizing them