Delivering an intervention to a young person minimising his harmful sexual behaviour: a practice case study

Young perpetrators of harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) often minimise the severity of their offending. Whilst there have been mixed findings, the most recent literature suggests offence-specific minimisation increases the risk of sexual recidivism in high risk sexual offenders. The presented case study summarises the authors’ engagement with a 17-year-old perpetrator of internet-related HSB (arrested for possessing and distributing thousands of indecent photographs of children) who was minimising the severity of his offending. The client engaged in a six session intervention which was adapted from two HSB manuals. This involved exploring minimisation, perspective taking and HSB consequences. To assist the formulation process and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, the Internet Behaviour and Attitudes Questionnaire was administered and an unstructured interview facilitated. Whilst the IBAQ revealed a slight increase in minimisation, the interview demonstrated developments in the client’s insight into his offending. Implications for future research and practice development are discussed

Delivering an intervention to a young person minimising his harmful sexual behaviour: a practice case study

Young perpetrators of harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) often minimise the severity of their offending. Whilst there have been mixed findings, the most recent literature suggests offence-specific minimisation increases the risk of sexual recidivism in high risk sexual offenders. The presented case study summarises the authors’ engagement with a 17-year-old perpetrator of internet-related HSB (arrested for possessing and distributing thousands of indecent photographs of children) who was minimising the severity of his offending. The client engaged in a six session intervention which was adapted from two HSB manuals. This involved exploring minimisation, perspective taking and HSB consequences. To assist the formulation process and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention, the Internet Behaviour and Attitudes Questionnaire was administered and an unstructured interview facilitated. Whilst the IBAQ revealed a slight increase in minimisation, the interview demonstrated developments in the client’s insight into his offending. Implications for future research and practice development are discussed

The Impact of Short Breaks on Families with a Disabled Child: Report One of the Quantitative Phase

This document reports on a cross-sectional sample of families with a disabled child using short breaks in England; it describes the characteristics of children and families using short breaks, the nature and quantity of the short breaks they are using, their experiences of and satisfaction with short breaks and which factors are associated with a range of outcomes for family carers, disabled children and their siblings. This report uses both quantitative data derived from standardised questions and qualitative data from family members’ written responses to open-ended questions in the survey instruments

The impacts of short break provision on disabled children and families: an international literature review

For over 30 years, short breaks have been part of the landscape of support provision for families with a disabled child. Historically, the term ‘respite care’ has been used in much of the research literature concerning short breaks for families with a disabled child. However, ‘short breaks’ has become the preferred term, partly due to the negative connotations of family carers requiring ‘respite’ from their children, and partly because short breaks now encompass a much wider range of supports than out-of-home placement in specialist residential facilities (Cramer and Carlin, 2008). As such, the term ‘short breaks’ will be used throughout this review, with the exception of direct quotes from research studies where the term ‘respite’ is used by study participants or study authors

Investigating perceptions of child sexual abuse

Purpose The aim of this research was to investigate perceptions of child sexual abuse (CSA), particularly the perceptions held by CSA perpetrators and the public. Given the influence perceptions can have on a CSA victim’s wellbeing and disclosure behaviour, and a CSA perpetrator’s sexual recidivism risk, gaining insight into these perceptions was considered important. Method To facilitate this investigation, a multifaceted approach was adopted. This commenced with chapter one, a systematic literature review, which aimed to identify which factors influence English and Welsh perceptions of CSA victims. The second chapter comprised an empirical research project which aimed to investigate the influence of a victim’s abuse history, victim-perpetrator relationship and a perpetrator’s gender on British perceptions of CSA. These three factors were selected due to their hypothesised influence on perceptions and lack of investigation. Following this, chapter three was completed which involved a critique of the Gudjonsson Blame Attribution Inventory-Revised (GBAI-R). This was to assess the inventory’s suitability for chapter four and to inform practitioners of its utility. Finally, chapter four entailed a case study which aimed to investigate whether a CSA perpetrator’s offence-specific minimisation could be reduced. This was facilitated by completing a six-session intervention on an individual basis. Results This thesis revealed various findings. Specifically, chapter one revealed respondent gender influences public perceptions of CSA victims as males perceived CSA victims more negatively than females. Regarding chapter two, a victim’s abuse history, victim-perpetrator relationship and a perpetrator’s gender were not found to influence British perceptions of CSA. However, similar to chapter one, females were significantly more pro-victim compared to males. In chapter three, the critique identified some evidence of the GBAI-R being psychometrically sound and utilising an efficient administration methodology. Despite this, some concerns were raised regarding the representativeness of its normative data and the inventory’s susceptibility to extreme scores. Finally, chapter four revealed some evidence of the intervention reducing the perpetrator’s offence-specific minimisation although it was not possible to firmly conclude this. Conclusion The findings highlight the need for further research into perceptions of CSA. This should include investigations into why males are less pro-victim compared to females and the impact this might have on CSA. Research should also continue to investigate the influence of a victim’s abuse history, victim-perpetrator relationship and a perpetrator’s gender on perceptions of CSA. As part of this research a more representative sample should be recruited to enable the generalisation of findings. A more comprehensive critique of the GBAI-R should also be facilitated as well as further investigations into minimisation

Curcumin-induced HDAC inhibition and attenuation of medulloblastoma growth in vitro and in vivo

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumor in children, and its prognosis is worse than for many other common pediatric cancers. Survivors undergoing treatment suffer from serious therapy-related side effects. Thus, it is imperative to identify safer, effective treatments for medulloblastoma. In this study we evaluated the anti-cancer potential of curcumin in medulloblastoma by testing its ability to induce apoptosis and inhibit tumor growth <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>using established medulloblastoma models.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using cultured medulloblastoma cells, tumor xenografts, and the Smo/Smo transgenic medulloblastoma mouse model, the antitumor effects of curcumin were tested <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Curcumin induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase in medulloblastoma cells. These effects were accompanied by reduced histone deacetylase (HDAC) 4 expression and activity and increased tubulin acetylation, ultimately leading to mitotic catastrophe. In <it>in vivo </it>medulloblastoma xenografts, curcumin reduced tumor growth and significantly increased survival in the Smo/Smo transgenic medulloblastoma mouse model.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>data suggest that curcumin has the potential to be developed as a therapeutic agent for medulloblastoma.</p

The ENIGMA-Epilepsy working group: Mapping disease from large data sets

Epilepsy is a common and serious neurological disorder, with many different constituent conditions characterized by their electro clinical, imaging, and genetic features. MRI has been fundamental in advancing our understanding of brain processes in the epilepsies. Smaller‐scale studies have identified many interesting imaging phenomena, with implications both for understanding pathophysiology and improving clinical care. Through the infrastructure and concepts now well‐established by the ENIGMA Consortium, ENIGMA‐Epilepsy was established to strengthen epilepsy neuroscience by greatly increasing sample sizes, leveraging ideas and methods established in other ENIGMA projects, and generating a body of collaborating scientists and clinicians to drive forward robust research. Here we review published, current, and future projects, that include structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI), and that employ advanced methods including structural covariance, and event‐based modeling analysis. We explore age of onset‐ and duration‐related features, as well as phenomena‐specific work focusing on particular epilepsy syndromes or phenotypes, multimodal analyses focused on understanding the biology of disease progression, and deep learning approaches. We encourage groups who may be interested in participating to make contact to further grow and develop ENIGMA‐Epilepsy

Causes of decoupling between larval supply and settlement and consequences for understanding recruitment and population connectivity

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 392 (2010): 9-21, doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2010.04.008.Marine broadcast spawners have two-phase life cycles, with pelagic larvae and benthic adults. Larval supply and settlement link these two phases and are crucial for the persistence of marine populations. Mainly due to the complexity in sampling larval supply accurately, many researchers use settlement as a proxy for larval supply. Larval supply is a constraining variable for settlement because, without larval supply, there is no settlement. Larval supply and settlement may not be well correlated, however, and settlement may not consistently estimate larval supply. This paper explores the argument that larval supply (i.e., larval abundance near settlement sites) may not relate linearly to settlement. We review the relationship between larval supply and settlement, from estimates and biases in larval supply sampling, to non-behavioral and behavioral components, including small-scale hydrodynamics, competency, gregarious behavior, intensification of settlement, lunar periodicity, predation and cannibalism. Physical and structural processes coupled with behavior, such as small-scale hydrodynamics and intensification of settlement, sometimes result in under- or overestimation of larval supply, where it is predicted from a linear relationship with settlement. Although settlement is a function of larval supply, spatial and temporal processes interact with larval behavior to distort the relationship between larval supply and settlement, and when these distortions act consistently in time and space, they cause biased estimates of larval supply from settlement data. Most of the examples discussed here suggest that behavior is the main source of the decoupling between larval supply and settlement because larval behavior affects the vertical distribution of larvae, the response of larvae to hydrodynamics, intensification of settlement, gregariousness, predation and cannibalism. Thus, larval behavior seems to limit broad generalizations on the regulation of settlement by larval supply. Knowledge of the relationship is further hindered by the lack of a well founded theoretical relationship between the two variables. The larval supply- settlement transition may have strong general consequences for population connectivity, since larval supply is a result of larval transport, and settlement constrains recruitment. Thus, measuring larval supply and settlement effectively allows more accurate quantification and understanding of larval transport, recruitment and population connectivity.JP would like to thank WHOI Ocean Life Institute for partial funding. FP’s contribution is based upon research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation

Size fractionation as a tool for separating charcoal of different fuel source and recalcitrance in the wildfire ash layer

Charcoal is a heterogeneous material exhibiting a diverse range of properties. This variability represents a serious challenge in studies that use the properties of natural charcoal for reconstructing wildfires history in terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that particle size is a sufficiently robust indicator for separating forest wildfire combustion products into fractions with distinct properties. For this purpose, we examined two different forest environments affected by contrasting wildfires in terms of severity: an eucalypt forest in Australia, which experienced an extremely severe wildfire, and a Mediterranean pine forest in Italy, which burned to moderate severity. We fractionated the ash/charcoal layers collected on the ground into four size fractions (>2, 2–1, 1–0.5, <0.5 mm) and analysed them for mineral ash content, elemental composition, chemical structure (by IR spectroscopy), fuel source and charcoal reflectance (by reflected-light microscopy), and chemical/thermal recalcitrance (by chemical and thermal oxidation). At both sites, the finest fraction (<0.5 mm) had, by far, the greatest mass. The C concentration and C/N ratio decreased with decreasing size fraction, while pH and the mineral ash content followed the opposite trend. The coarser fractions showed higher contribution of amorphous carbon and stronger recalcitrance. We also observed that certain fuel types were preferentially represented by particular size fractions. We conclude that the differences between ash/charcoal size fractions were most likely primarily imposed by fuel source and secondarily by burning conditions. Size fractionation can therefore serve as a valuable tool to characterise the forest wildfire combustion products, as each fraction displays a narrower range of properties than the whole sample. We propose the mineral ash content of the fractions as criterion for selecting the appropriate number of fractions to analyse

HER2-enriched subtype and novel molecular subgroups drive aromatase inhibitor resistance and an increased risk of relapse in early ER+/HER2+ breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Oestrogen receptor positive/ human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (ER+/HER2+) breast cancers (BCs) are less responsive to endocrine therapy than ER+/HER2- tumours. Mechanisms underpinning the differential behaviour of ER+HER2+ tumours are poorly characterised. Our aim was to identify biomarkers of response to 2 weeks’ presurgical AI treatment in ER+/HER2+ BCs. METHODS: All available ER+/HER2+ BC baseline tumours (n=342) in the POETIC trial were gene expression profiled using BC360™ (NanoString) covering intrinsic subtypes and 46 key biological signatures. Early response to AI was assessed by changes in Ki67 expression and residual Ki67 at 2 weeks (Ki672wk). Time-To-Recurrence (TTR) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models adjusted for standard clinicopathological variables. New molecular subgroups (MS) were identified using consensus clustering. FINDINGS: HER2-enriched (HER2-E) subtype BCs (44.7% of the total) showed poorer Ki67 response and higher Ki672wk (p<0.0001) than non-HER2-E BCs. High expression of ERBB2 expression, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and TP53 mutational score were associated with poor response and immune-related signatures with High Ki672wk. Five new MS that were associated with differential response to AI were identified. HER2-E had significantly poorer TTR compared to Luminal BCs (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.14–5.69; p=0.0222). The new MS were independent predictors of TTR, adding significant value beyond intrinsic subtypes. INTERPRETATION: Our results show HER2-E as a standardised biomarker associated with poor response to AI and worse outcome in ER+/HER2+. HRD, TP53 mutational score and immune-tumour tolerance are predictive biomarkers for poor response to AI. Lastly, novel MS identify additional non-HER2-E tumours not responding to AI with an increased risk of relapse