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The NiMe Diet: Scientific Principles and Recipes
No full textPLEASE NOTE: THIS IS THE FREE DIGITAL-DOWNLOAD VERSION OF THIS BOOK. A PRINTED VERSION MAY BE PURCHASED FROM AMAZON, FOR THE COST OF PRINTING ONLY (URL as of 07/21/2025: https://mybook.to/TheNiMeDiet)
Industrialized diets – high in processed foods and low in fibre – disrupt the gut microbiome and predispose us to chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, that have reached epidemic proportions in industrialized countries.
Microbiome scientists Anissa Armet (PhD in Nutrition and Metabolism, and registered dietitian) and Jens Walter (Professor and Doctorate in Microbiology) have developed the Non-Industrialized Microbiome Restore diet, or NiMe diet (pronounced Nee-Mee), to restore key microbiome features affected by industrialization and promote cardiometabolic health. In this book, the authors present the scientific rationale for developing the NiMe diet, information on how the diet was clinically validated in a human trial, as well as the recipes used in the trial
Narrative and Metanarrative Hospitality in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis
No full textMarjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) and Persepolis: The Story of a Return (2004) have been the focus of attention in many literary and (non-)academic terrains. Persepolis, a graphic novel narrated by a female character telling the story of her coming of age, has endowed Satrapi as the historiographical figure narrating the sociopolitical and cultural circumstances affecting peoples’ lives in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. This widely-read work has been regarded as a new and local form of knowledge and, generally, a truthful representation of post-revolutionary Iran—a geopolitical space typically considered impenetrable to the Western gaze. Considering Persepolis’ popularity and critical acclaim, this research sheds new light on how Iran’s geopolitical space is narrativized and represented. This thesis argues that the representational discourses used in Persepolis oftentimes homogenize the heterogeneities and ethnic diversities of the spaces and experiences described. It also contends that Persepolis cannot and should not be regarded as a comprehensive source of knowledge about Iran during and after the 1979 revolution.
Through a narrative and metanarrative analysis of Persepolis in the contexts of its production and reception, this research challenges reductionist and homogenizing critical perspectives and attempts to unravel representing and perpetuating Orientalist codes and values. In this regard, at the narrative level, Persepolis’ inclusions/exclusions and marginalization of certain characters and their experiences and perspectives are studied. At the metanarrative level, Persepolis’ critical reception and the narratives around it in (non-)academic circles are analyzed. In so doing, the power/knowledge structure of Michel Foucault, postcolonial concepts from Stuart Hall, and Jacques Derrida’s idea of hospitality (Of Hospitality 2000) is used at these levels of analysis. As the primary theoretical framework used in this research, hospitality outreaches other realms of meaning and, in a metaphoric sense, addresses the author’s hospitality toward the narratives included in the text and those excluded. Moreover, this study attempts to see the relationship between such hospitality and hospitality to Persepolis as a literary artifact, answering the question: to what extent are Persepolis’ hospitable reception and inclusion in academic syllabi affected by its historical subject and the narratives included in it? Hospitality and discourse analysis, as the methodological framework, can address all these various aspects to lay bare the less studied angles of Persepolis and the context it narrativizes in the graphic novel genre. This research concludes that Persepolis falls short of including certain narratives and perspectives hospitably. However, despite such exclusions, and primarily because of how its subject matter has been dealt with, i.e., with a tendency, in most cases, to align with the Orientalist narratives about Iran, it has mainly received unprecedented critical acclaim and is used widely as a historiographical text representing post-revolutionary Iran
Canadian Pharmacists: Evolving Scope of Practice
No full textBackground: Many Canadian jurisdictions have granted pharmacists the authority to initiate, modify, and maintain prescriptions independently, which has been proven to improve patient outcomes. However, inconsistent regulations and legislation governing pharmacists' prescribing across provinces have sparked ongoing debates. The criteria and processes for granting prescribing authority to pharmacists are often unclear. An additional issue that must be investigated is the common perception that pharmacists have "not stepped up to the plate" and adopted changes to their practice scope and expanded roles with sufficient speed or commitment. This perception might reflect underlying issues such as confidence deficits, personal attributes, inertia, or unrealistic remuneration expectations. This thesis explored Canadian regulators' procedures for authorizing changes or expansions in pharmacy practice and investigated the factors influencing pharmacists' willingness to adopt these changes.
Methods: This thesis comprises two studies: 1) a qualitative analysis and 2) a scoping review. The qualitative analysis study conducted online semi-structured interviews with Canadian pharmacy regulators and government representatives to analyze the processes for authorizing pharmacists to prescribe. It gathered insights into authorization boards, procedures, considerations, monitoring approaches, as well as opportunities, challenges, and suggestions for addressing these issues. The second study, a scoping review, collected qualitative data on the non-technical factors (social, cognitive, and personal management) affecting pharmacists and their expanded roles in Australia, the UK, and Canada. These countries were specifically chosen because they all have publicly funded healthcare systems, where the government plays a significant role in financing and regulating healthcare services, primarily funded through general taxation or specific health levies. They also share high-income status, advanced development, and comparable life expectancies. The review also highlighted pharmacists' suggestions for overcoming these factors.
Results: A total of 18 individuals participated in the qualitative analysis study, including 9 regulators and 9 government representatives from Ontario, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Nova Scotia, British Columbia (BC), Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba. The analysis identified three main themes: the authorization board, the authorization process, and monitoring and evaluation. The first theme examined the significant variability in the composition of authorizing boards or councils across provinces. Membership ranges from 9 to 20 individuals, including elected and appointed pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, public members, and pharmacy school deans. The second theme emphasized that expanding pharmacists' scope of practice is a shared responsibility between regulatory colleges and provincial governments, with final authority to approve or reject such expansions resting with the governments. The third theme examined how authorities use various methods to monitor and evaluate pharmacists' prescribing practices to ensure efficiency and public safety. These methods include analyzing clinical and patient outcomes, collaborating with academic partners and researchers to conduct surveys, performing inspections, addressing complaints, and coordinating with other provincial healthcare regulatory colleges and pharmacy regulators across Canada. The scoping review identified a total of 8,803 citations from both peer-reviewed and grey literature. 67 studies from searching the databases and registers met the eligibility criteria, including 20 from the UK, 22 from Canada, and 19 from Australia. Additionally, 24 references were sourced from grey literature. The analysis identified five key themes: pharmacy-related factors highlighted issues such as lack of motivation, uncertainty about new roles, regulatory unawareness, and concerns about negative implications and professional criticism; practice-related factors included enablers like pharmacists' skills and drug knowledge, alongside challenges such as time constraints, insufficient training, limited access to patient records, and resistance from other healthcare providers; physical environment and resource-related factors noted benefits like walk-in services and convenient locations, but also pointed out issues like inadequate infrastructure and shortages of staff and diagnostic tools; regulation covered problems such as unclear policies, lack of promotion for new services, and insufficient remuneration; and patients' related factors involved challenges including low awareness, public mistrust, preference for general practitioners, and reluctance to pay for services.
Conclusion: Canadian provinces have varying regulations and legislation regarding pharmacists' prescribing practices, aiming to improve their capabilities, reduce healthcare strain, and ensure high-quality care. However, challenges and non-technical factors hinder pharmacists from adopting expanded roles. Effective collaboration among regulatory colleges, pharmacy associations, government bodies, and the public is crucial for overcoming these obstacles and enabling pharmacists to practice to their full potential
The Rhetoric of Opposition: An Exploration of Far-Right Narrative Strategies and LGBTQ+ Advocacy
No full textThis study investigates the contrasting rhetorical approaches employed by social media platforms and content creators when moderating and framing ideologically charged content, specifically focusing on LGBTQ+ issues as a case study. Through comparative analysis of far-right media outlets and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, this research identifies distinct stylistic patterns that reflect deeper paradigmatic differences in how controversial content is presented, justified, and moderated online. Applying Walter Fisher's communication theory, we demonstrate that far-right platforms predominantly employ narrative paradigm strategies—characterized by moral storytelling, emotional appeals, and identity-based
framing—while LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations primarily utilize rational world paradigm approaches relying on empirical evidence, statistical analysis, and structured argumentation. These stylistic differences manifest across platform policies, content moderation decisions, and user engagement patterns, creating what Fisher termed "conceptual incommensurability" between opposing viewpoints. The study reveals how digital platforms' moderation approaches often reinforce these paradigmatic divisions, as engagement-driven algorithms typically favour emotionally resonant narrative content over rational deliberative discourse. Using thematic, semiotic, and discourse analysis methods, we document how these stylistic choices influence content visibility, audience reception, and the broader digital public sphere. Our findings suggest that effective content moderation strategies must account for both narrative and rational elements when addressing controversial ideological content, as purely technical approaches to moderation often fail to address the underlying narrative structures that make controversial content compelling to specific audiences. This research contributes to understanding how rhetorical style shapes digital discourse around contentious social issues and offers insights for developing more nuanced approaches to content moderation that can foster meaningful dialogue across ideological divides
Movement-generated neural activity facilitates neurogenesis in postembryonic Danio rerio
No full textSensory experience plays a crucial role in shaping the developing vertebrate brain through modulating the generation and integration of new brain cells (neurogenesis), particularly during postembryonic development. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are an excellent model to study sensory-dependent neurogenesis due to their oviparous development and conserved traits. Physical movement is one experience that generates sensory feedback which stimulates neurogenesis, though the form in which this feedback reaches and influences the brain remains unclear. I predict that neural activity, generated by movement-derived sensory feedback in the peripheral nervous system, is the mechanism that drives this neurogenesis in the brain.
To test this, we developed immobilization and exercise paradigms to determine whether a change in physical movement would alter neurogenesis levels in zebrafish larvae during postembryonic development. These paradigms were then be utilized to determine if changes in movement result in changes in neural activity, which was characterized through use of in situ hybridization of the gene fosab, a known marker of neural activity. We showed that immobilization results in a general decrease in neurogenesis in that cellular proliferation and overall size is decreased in the brain compared to swimming controls, whereas the proportion of newly generated, mature neurons is increased, suggesting that an inability to move during postembryonic development promotes differentiation of mature neurons over maintenance of the neural progenitor population. Alternatively, increasing larval movement via exercise in a swim tunnel demonstrated an increase in cellular proliferation and brain size while showing a decrease in newly differentiated mature neurons compared to unexercised controls, suggesting that increased movement prioritizes maintenance of the progenitor population over differentiating neurons. We also demonstrated changes in apoptosis in response to different levels of movement, with both immobilization and increased movement promoting increases in apoptosis, suggesting that movement-generated sensory feedback likely influences cellular death in some capacity, though the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear.
Once we established a relationship between movement and neurogenesis, we sought to demonstrate changes in neural activity in response to various levels of movement. Our data show that neural activity is significantly decreased in immobilized larvae compared to controls, whereas both chronic and acute bouts of increased movement significantly increase neural activity. To implicate neural activity as a driver of neurogenesis, larval were chronically exposed to a pharmaceutical inducer of neural activity, pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in cellular proliferation as neural activity was increased. Interestingly, brains of these larvae appeared to promote maintenance of the progenitor population over differentiation of mature neurons, similar to what was seen with exercised larvae. Finally, larvae were subject to an optopharmacological experiment in which peripheral sensory neurons were stimulated with the drug Optovin, generating bouts of both neural activity and movement. These larvae demonstrated similar results to the exercised and PTZ-treated fish, with genetically immobilized larvae exhibiting levels of neurogenesis comparable to basal levels of control larvae. This suggests that even in the absence of movement, stimulation of neural activity is sufficient to modulate neurogenesis.
Taken together, these results show that changes in movement produce acute changes in neural activity consistent with changes seen in neurogenesis over a longer period. This suggests that movement facilitates generation of neural activity by sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system which travels to the brain and modulates neurogenesis. It appears that increased levels of neural activity seem to promote maintenance of the neural progenitor population as opposed to differentiation of progenitors into mature neurons, though the mechanism by which this occurs warrants further investigation.
This work will test for a foundational mechanism through which sensory feedback generated with movement during development shapes the sensitive growing brain and will represent a shared mechanism through which the animal’s own behaviour contributes to its developing brain structure and function
HIV Persistence in the Brain Despite Effective Antiretroviral Therapy, Implications for Brain Innate Immune Response and Treatment
No full textHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains an incurable condition due to its ability to integrate into the host genome and persist in various reservoirs, including the brain. While adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) can suppress viral replication, discontinuation leads to a rapid viral rebound. HIV infection of the brain poses unique challenges as the blood-brain barrier limits ART penetration, and long-lived brain-resident cells, such as microglia and macrophages, resist HIV-induced death while being less responsive to ART than lymphocytes. This study aimed to investigate HIV persistence in the brain during effective ART and the impact this reservoir has on neuroimmune response.
To assess the impact of ART on HIV persistence in the brain, post-mortem brain samples from people with HIV (PWH) with uncontrolled viremia (HIV[+]), PWH with undetectable plasma viral load (HIV[+]/ART), and uninfected individuals (HIV[-]) were analyzed. We detected HIV RNA, DNA, and integrated DNA in all PWH, regardless of ART duration or plasma viral load. Immunofluorescence imaging further confirmed the presence of HIV capsid protein in the brain tissues. These findings were replicated in a non-human primate model of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), where SIV RNA, DNA, provirus, and capsid protein were detected in the brains of infected macaques despite ART. These results provided definitive evidence of a persistent viral reservoir in the brain of PWH receiving ART.
Given the detection of viral elements in the brains of PWH, we hypothesized that their presence may alter the brain’s microenvironment, contributing to inflammation and tissue damage. To investigate virus-host interactions in HIV-infected brains, we examined the transcriptomic profiles of anti-retroviral host restriction factors (HRFs) in a cohort comprising uninfected individuals (HIV[-]), HIV-infected individuals without neurocognitive impairments (HIV[+]), those with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), and those with HAND and encephalitis (HIV[+]/HIVE). Our analysis revealed differential expression of established HIV-associated HRFs in the brains of HIV[+] patients. Notably, MAN1B1 was upregulated in both of the groups with HAND, correlating with increased HIV load in the brain.
Further investigation into the role of inflammatory pathways in HIV persistence led us to examine Gasdermin D (GSDMD), a key mediator of pyroptotic cell death. In primary human microglia, monocytic THP-1 cells, and CD4+ T cells, GSDMD expression at both the gene and protein levels positively correlated with HIV load. We found that infection of GSDMD knock-out THP-1 cells resulted in significantly reduced viral production compared to mock knock-out cells. Additionally, treatment with dimethyl fumarate (DMF), an FDA-approved drug known to inhibit GSDMD, suppressed HIV production. These findings indicate that GSDMD functions as a host dependency factor for HIV, and its inhibition by DMF could serve as a potential therapeutic strategy to reduce HIV persistence in the brain.
In summary, this study demonstrated that HIV persists in the brain despite long-term ART, early initiated, and suppressed systemic viremia. The presence of viral RNA, DNA, provirus, and proteins suggests that the brain acts as a significant viral reservoir, potentially contributing to HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. We identified specific host restriction factors associated with increased viral load and neurocognitive impairment, highlighting MAN1B1 as a key player in the persistence of HIV in the brain. Furthermore, our findings identified GSDMD as an HIV host dependency factor that promotes viral infection and replication. Inhibition of GSDMD using DMF represents a promising approach to reducing HIV load in the brain, potentially improving the quality of life for PWH. These insights underscore the need for targeted strategies to address HIV persistence in the brain and mitigate the associated neurological complications
Bucket of Mice
Get PDFThis image shows a burying beetle (Nicrophorus hebes) standing on a dead mouse in one of the carrion-baited pitfall traps I use to collect beetles for my research. These beetles bury small dead animals and feed them to their larvae, which is an impressive level of parental care for an insect. My research includes the small tan mites (genus Poecilochirus) that can be seen crawling on the beetle's head and thorax in this photo. These mites ride on the beetle as a means of transportation between carcasses, and can even help their hosts by hunting down and eating fly eggs and larvae that would otherwise compete with the beetles for food. My project investigates whether the beetles show preferences for any specific type of dead animal, and whether the mites riding on the beetles are all a single species or a group of similar looking cryptic species