Personal resurrection: female childhood sexual abuse survivors' experience of the Wellness-Program.

Background: Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors deal with complex mental, physical and relationship problems in adulthood which negatively affects their well-being and health. The aim of the present paper was to present a description of the Wellness-Program for female CSA survivors, the participating women's evaluation of the different therapies in the program as well as a qualitative study on their experience of the program's effects on their life, health and well-being.

Method: The Wellness-Program lasted for 10 weeks with organised schedule 20 hours per week.

Mutational analysis of a principal neutralization domain of visna/maedi virus envelope glycoprotein.

We have shown previously that a type-specific neutralization domain is located within a 39 aa sequence in the fourth variable domain of gp135 in visna/maedi virus. We now show that neutralizing antibodies detected early in infection are directed to this epitope, suggesting an immunodominant nature of this domain. Ten antigenic variants were previously analysed for mutations in this region, and all but one were found to be mutated.

Duplicated sequence motif in the long terminal repeat of maedi-visna virus extends cell tropism and is associated with neurovirulence.

Maedi-visna virus (MVV) is a lentivirus of sheep causing chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs (maedi) and the nervous system (visna). We have previously shown that a duplicated sequence in the long terminal repeat (LTR) of MVV is a determinant of cell tropism. Here, we demonstrate that deletion of a CAAAT sequence from either one of the repeats resulted in poor virus growth in sheep choroid plexus cells.

Simultaneous mutations in CA and Vif of Maedi-Visna virus cause attenuated replication in macrophages and reduced infectivity in vivo.

Maedi-visna virus (MVV) is a lentivirus of sheep sharing several key features with the primate lentiviruses. The virus causes slowly progressive diseases, mainly in the lungs and the central nervous system of sheep. Here, we investigate the molecular basis for the differential growth phenotypes of two MVV isolates.

Mucosal vaccination with an attenuated maedi-visna virus clone.

Four sheep were infected intratracheally with an attenuated molecular clone of maedi-visna virus (MVV). All four became infected. Ten months later these sheep were challenged intratracheally with a genetically similar but pathogenic clone of MVV.

Different Nordic facilities for victims of sexual assault: a comparative study.

Background: Open multidisciplinary centers were operated in the mid 1990s for victims of sexual assaults in Oslo and Reykjavik. However, in Copenhagen and Helsinki forensic medical examination was only available to victims who reported directly to the police. One of the main aims of this study was to compare the effect of these different service facilities in four Nordic capitals on the victims' frequency to seek help and report sexual assaults to the police.

Selection of antigenic variants in maedi-visna virus infection.

In order to analyse the pattern of sequence variation in maedi-visna virus (MVV) in persistently infected sheep and to answer the question of whether antigenic variants are selected in a long-term MVV infection, an 87 bp variable region in the env gene of ten antigenic variants and 24 non-variants was sequenced. Nine of the ten antigenic variants had mutations in this region, comprising 24 point mutations and a deletion of 3 bp. Twenty-three of the point mutations (96%) were non-synonymous.

The long terminal repeat is a determinant of cell tropism of maedi-visna virus.

Maedi-visna virus (MVV) is a lentivirus of sheep, mainly affecting the lungs and the central nervous system. Long terminal repeat (LTR) sequence variability is common in tissue culture-derived isolates of MVV as well as those of other lentiviruses. The role of this sequence variation in MVV replication has not been explored.