Purposeof Review: This article explores the emerging role of compassion in the treatment of individuals who have caused sexual harm. It also brings focus to the importance of self-care and self-compassion for the practitioners who do this work.
Recent Findings: Early studies into interventions designed to prevent offending behavior focused more on risk reduction than client resilience and well-being.
During obesity and high fat-diet (HFD) feeding in mice, sustained low-grade inflammation includes not only increased pro-inflammatory macrophages in the expanding adipose tissue, but also bone marrow (BM) production of invasive Ly6C monocytes. As BM adiposity also accrues with HFD, we explored the relationship between the gains in BM white adipocytes and invasive Ly6C monocytes by in vivo and ex vivo paradigms. We find a temporal and causal link between BM adipocyte whitening and the Ly6C monocyte surge, preceding the adipose tissue macrophage rise during HFD in mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
January 2024
Since the Good Lives Model's (GLM) inception, researchers and practitioners have faced questions about its implementation. Programs claiming to use the GLM vary substantially in the extent to which the GLM informs treatment, and no tools exist to monitor therapist fidelity to the GLM. The aim of the current paper is to offer a concrete tool to monitor therapist fidelity to the GLM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal functions demonstrate circadian rhythms thought to be entrained, in part, by an organisms' intrinsic feeding and fasting periods as well as by the intestinal microbiome. Circadian disruption as a result of ill-timed nutrient exposure and obesogenic feeding poses an increased risk to disease. As such, the aim of this study was to assess the relationships between dietary timing, composition, and the microbiome with regard to rhythmic small intestinal structure and mucosal immunity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: This paper explores how motivational interviewing (MI) can be useful to practitioners working with people who have sexually abused. Research has found that the most effective practitioners working with these clients are warm, empathic, rewarding, and directive. Putting these characteristics into practice, however, can be challenging for professionals in treatment settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn low-field magnetic resonance applications there is often an interest in creating homogeneous magnetic fields over unusual geometries, particularly when quantum magnetometers are involved. In this paper a design method is proposed, where both the surface current and magnetic field are expanded to find current coefficients that cancel out higher order field terms. Two coils are designed using this double expansion methodology: (1) a tuning field for a half-meter-long atomic magnetometer array and (2) a null field for a magnetometer to operate adjacent to an excitation solenoid.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFour decades ago, it was identified that muramyl dipeptide (MDP), a peptidoglycan-derived bacterial cell wall component, could display immunosuppressive functions in animals through mechanisms that remain unexplored. We sought to revisit these pioneering observations because mutations in , the gene encoding the host sensor of MDP, are associated with increased risk of developing the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's disease, thus suggesting that the loss of the immunomodulatory functions of NOD2 could contribute to the development of inflammatory disease. Here, we demonstrate that intraperitoneal (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are the most abundant circulating leukocytes, and the first cells recruited to sites of tissue inflammation. Using a fixation method to preserve native CD marker expression prior to immunophenotyping, we identified a distinct population of "primed for recruitment" PMNs in healthy mouse and human blood that has high expression of adhesion and activation markers compared with the bulk resting-state PMNs. In response to acute tissue inflammation, primed PMNs (pPMNs) were rapidly depleted from the circulation and recruited to the tissue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
September 2021
User experience and client satisfaction is capturing more attention in the field of social services. The provision of treatment services to individuals convicted of sexual offenses, in particular, has expanded exponentially over the last 20 years. This growing population is now interviewed, interrogated, investigated, assessed, managed, treated, supervised, and surveilled, while their perspective as "service users" is almost entirely absent from research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dystonia is a painful and disabling disorder, characterised by painful, involuntary posturing of the affected body region(s). Deep brain stimulation is an intervention typically reserved for severe and drug-refractory cases, although uncertainty exists regarding its efficacy, safety, and tolerability.
Objectives: To compare the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of deep brain stimulation (DBS) versus placebo, sham intervention, or best medical care, including botulinum toxin and resective or lesional surgery, in adults with dystonia.
An unshielded array of Rb atomic magnetometers, operating close to 1 MHz, is used to attenuate interference by 42-48 dB. A sensitivity of 15 fT/Hz to a local source of signal is retained. In addition, a 2D spectroscopic technique, in which the magnetometers are repeatedly pumped and data acquired between pump times, enables a synchronously generated signal to be distinguished from an interfering signal very close in frequency; the timing and signal mimics what would be observed in a magnetic resonance echo train.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal dysbiosis contributes to obesity and insulin resistance, but intervening with antibiotics, prebiotics, or probiotics can be limited by specificity or sustained changes in microbial composition. Postbiotics include bacterial components such as lipopolysaccharides, which have been shown to promote insulin resistance during metabolic endotoxemia. We found that bacterial cell wall-derived muramyl dipeptide (MDP) is an insulin-sensitizing postbiotic that requires NOD2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsulin resistance is a chronic inflammatory condition accompanying obesity or high fat diets that leads to type 2 diabetes. It is hypothesized that lipids and gut bacterial compounds in particular contribute to metabolic inflammation by activating the immune system; however, the receptors detecting these "instigators" of inflammation remain largely undefined. Here, we show that circulating activators of NOD1, a receptor for bacterial peptidoglycan, increase with high fat feeding in mice, suggesting that NOD1 could be a critical sensor leading to metabolic inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mammalian gastrointestinal tract hosts a diverse community of microbes including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths, and viruses. Through coevolution, mammals and these microbes have developed a symbiosis that is sustained through the host's continuous sensing of microbial factors and the generation of a tolerant or pro-inflammatory response. While analyzing T cell-driven colitis in nonlittermate mouse strains, we serendipitously identified that a nongenetic transmissible factor dramatically increased disease susceptibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLoss of function in the NOD2 gene is associated with a higher risk of developing Crohn's disease (CD). CD is characterized by activation of T cells and activated T cells are involved in mucosal inflammation and mucosal damage. We found that acute T cell activation with anti-CD3 mAb induced stronger small intestinal mucosal damage in NOD2(-/-) mice compared with wild-type mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA detailed understanding of the population dynamics of many amphibian species is lacking despite concerns about declining amphibian biodiversity and abundance. This paper explores temporal patterns of occupancy and underlying extinction and colonization dynamics in a regionally imperiled amphibian species, the Northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) in Alberta. Our study contributes to elucidating regional occupancy dynamics at northern latitudes, where climate extremes likely have a profound effect on seasonal occupancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObesity has reached epidemic proportions, but little is known about its influence on the intestinal immune system. Here we show that the gut immune system is altered during high-fat diet (HFD) feeding and is a functional regulator of obesity-related insulin resistance (IR) that can be exploited therapeutically. Obesity induces a chronic phenotypic pro-inflammatory shift in bowel lamina propria immune cell populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study explored the prevalence of early trauma in a sample of U.S. female sexual offenders (N = 47) using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal epithelial cells were once thought to be inert, non-responsive cells that simply acted as a physical barrier that prevents the contents of the intestinal lumen from accessing the underlying tissue. However, it is now clear that these cells express a full repertoire of Toll- and Nod-like receptors, and that their activation by components of the microbiota is vital for the development of a functional epithelium, maintenance of barrier integrity, and defense against pathogenic organisms. Additionally, mounting evidence suggests that epithelial sensing of bacteria plays a significant role in the management of the numbers and types of microbes present in the gut microbiota via the production of antimicrobial peptides and other microbe-modulatory products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
April 2014
The purpose of this study was to obtain feedback from civilly committed sex offenders (N = 113) about the components of treatment that they believed to be most important and helpful in preventing reoffense. Participants were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the treatment process and therapists. Victim empathy and accountability were rated as the most important elements of treatment, along with skills for preventing relapse and methods for controlling sexual arousal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pharmacologic inhibition or genetic ablation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase gamma (PI3Kγ) has been shown to be protective against experimental colitis. However, the role of PI3Kγ in the resolution phase of colitis remains unexplored. In this study, we assess the effects of genetic knockout of PI3Kγ on the induction and resolution of colitis induced by the hapten trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
September 2011
The macrophage plays a major role in the induction and resolution phases of inflammation; however, how lipid mediator-derived signals may modulate macrophage function in the resolution of inflammation driven by microbes (e.g., in inflammatory bowel disease) is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Assessment of infection with helminth parasites in murine models of disease could identify antiinflammatory mechanisms that translate into treatments for arthritic disease. The aim of this study was to test the ability of infection with the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta to ameliorate Freund's complete adjuvant (CFA)-induced monoarthritis in mice.
Methods: Mice received CFA with or without H diminuta, and knee swelling, pain, and measures of inflammation were assessed.