Tshiluba Language Structures

This poster provides a preliminary description of the linguistic features of Tshiluba (also known as Luba-Kasai), a major language spoken in the south-central, Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and by several refugee families in the Boise area. Tshiluba is characterized as an Atlantic-Congo, Narrow Bantu, Central language (L31) within the Niger-Congo language family and, although it is spoken by over 6 million people and enjoys national language status in DRC, it has not received extensive recent attention in the linguistic literature. Over the course of a semester, our group has met with native speakers of Tshiluba to document the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the language as well as several semantic domains of interest. The analysis of these features, along with recordings made by our group, serves the greater linguistic community by providing theoretical linguists with new language data to support their research. It will also serve the Tshiluba community in the diaspora by providing documentation and archived recordings of this language for future generations to access. One goal in the community is to encourage the development of teaching materials to support others interested in learning the language

Bird Predation on the Garter Snake Thamnophis elegans near Eagle Lake in California

Previous studies have revealed distinctive ecotypic differences between garter snakes living in the meadow and lakeshore environments around Eagle Lake in California. Snakes from these contrasting environments have significantly different growth rates, litter sizes, adult body size, annual survival, and coloration. To try and explain these differences, bird predation was studied and compared between the two environments. Over a period of two years, snakes were collected and their wounds were photographed and analyzed. A bird survey was also conducted in the area. The analysis of wounds revealed that a larger proportion of snakes were wounded in the meadow sites, but of these wounded snakes, a significantly larger proportion of smaller snakes displayed wounds in the lakeshore site. Furthermore, the bird survey suggested a much stronger bird predation pressure prevailed in the lakeshore environment. These results suggest that smaller birds may be preying on lakeshore snakes, injuring more of the smaller snakes. Additionally, birds may be more adept at killing the garter snakes in the lakeshore region, leaving fewer alive, injured snakes with visible wounds. These differences in bird predation may help promote the ecotypic differences between the lakeshore and meadow garter snakes

A systematic review and critique of publicly available guidance for mental health practitioners called to a coroner’s inquest

Mental health practitioners may be called to an inquest after the unexpected death of a patient. Our review aimed to synthesise publicly available guidance written for practitioners working in mental health who are called to give evidence at a coroner’s inquest. We conducted both a systematic database and web search. We conducted a quality appraisal and data synthesis using the Framework Method. We found limited guidance specifically for those working in mental health. Guidance gave advice on preparing effectively including how to give oral evidence and write witness statements. Support was often assumed to be given by the employing Trust. Only a minority of guidance suggested means of psychological support. We identified a set of practically applicable principles for healthcare practitioners attending inquests. Many recommendations were not backed by evidence and lacked stakeholder input

Help-seeking in older crime victims: A mixed-methods study in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police Service

BACKGROUND: There are growing concerns about the psychological impact of community crimes on older victims, but little is known about whether older victims obtain mental health support. OBJECTIVE: To understand: A) whether older crime victims seek help for psychological distress, B) what factors predict help-seeking, and C) the barriers and facilitators to accessing support. METHODS: Our longitudinal mixed-methods study was embedded within the Victim Improvement Package (VIP) trial. Older victims (n = 2,932) were screened for depressive and anxious symptoms with the GAD-2 and PHQ-2 within one month of a crime. Those with significant symptoms (n = 1,170) were provided with letters signposting them to their General Practitioner (GP) (Family Physician). A subsample of older Victims (n = 677) were then re-screened at three months and asked if they had acted on the signposting. Logistic regression was used to examine predictors of help-seeking. Qualitative semi-structured interviews on a sub-sample (n = 27) were undertaken to establish barriers and facilitators to help-seeking and explore views on the signposting letter, and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Only 13% (n = 85) of distressed older victims approached their GP for help, and only 32% (n = 27) of these received help. Significant predictors of acting on signposting were police-recorded vulnerability (p = 0.01) and severity of continued anxiety at three months’ post-crime (p <0.01). Help seeking appeared to be driven by feeling overwhelmed or a desire to find others with similar experiences. Barriers to help-seeking included accessibility problems and the belief that they should be able to cope. CONCLUSIONS: Despite growing evidence of psychological distress in older crime victims, few receive support. Signposting older victims may be insufficient to improve psychological outcomes and help-seeking barriers suggest more active management is required

Psychological distress and interventions for older victims of crime : a systematic review

We aimed to conduct the first systematic narrative review and quality appraisal of existing evidence on the psychological consequences of crime in older victims in the community and psychological interventions. We searched five databases to identify all peer-reviewed literature published in English on psychological impact and/or interventions for older crime victims and quality appraised these using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines (Prospero: CRD42019140137). Evidence from included studies were narratively synthesized, along with their strengths and limitations. We found 20 studies on psychological distress in older victims, four of which included interventions. From these, we identified 30 different impacts including symptoms of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, emotions including humiliation and self-blame, and behavioral changes. Only feasibility interventions have been published, although promising results were reported for cognitive-behavioral informed treatments for depression and anxiety. Studies were wide-ranging in aims, crimes included, and outcomes used. Recommendations for improving the evidence-base and to raise the profile of this neglected population have been provided

A systematic review and critique of publicly available guidance for mental health practitioners called to a coroner’s inquest

Mental health practitioners may be called to an inquest after the unexpected death of a patient. Our review aimed to synthesise publicly available guidance written for practitioners working in mental health who are called to give evidence at a coroner’s inquest. We conducted both a systematic database and web search. We conducted a quality appraisal and data synthesis using the Framework Method. We found limited guidance specifically for those working in mental health. Guidance gave advice on preparing effectively including how to give oral evidence and write witness statements. Support was often assumed to be given by the employing Trust. Only a minority of guidance suggested means of psychological support. We identified a set of practically applicable principles for healthcare practitioners attending inquests. Many recommendations were not backed by evidence and lacked stakeholder inpu

Service user perspectives of community mental health services for people with complex emotional needs: a co-produced qualitative interview study

BACKGROUND: There is consensus that services supporting people with complex emotional needs are part of a mental health care system in which change is needed. To date, service users' views and co-production initiatives have had little impact on the development of interventions and care. This needs to change, and our paper evidences the experiences and perspectives of a diverse range of people on how community services can best address the needs of people with complex emotional needs. METHODS: A co-produced qualitative research study. Lived experience researchers led data collection and analysis. Individual interviews were conducted with 30 people across England who had a diverse range of experiences and perspectives of using community services for complex emotional needs. Participants were asked about their experiences of using community services for their mental health, and views on how community services can best address their needs. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Participants reported some experiences of good practice but also of experiences of severely stigmatising interventions, a lack of effective support and service fragmentation. Relational Practice was identified as the central overarching theme and describes how community services can best support people with complex emotional needs. This approach involves care delivered in a non-stigmatising, individualised and compassionate way and care that is trauma-informed. It involves care that is planned collaboratively with service users to ensure their multiple needs are addressed in a flexible, holistic and consistent way which accounts for the long-term and fluctuating nature of their needs. CONCLUSIONS: Relational practice approaches have potential to facilitate better community care for people with complex emotional needs. Research and service development are needed to examine how best to implement such approaches across the mental health service system. This work must be co-produced with people with relevant lived experience, their carers and the professionals who support them

SoDaH: the SOils DAta Harmonization database, an open-source synthesis of soil data from research networks, version 1.0

Data collected from research networks present opportunities to test theories and develop models about factors responsible for the long-term persistence and vulnerability of soil organic matter (SOM). Synthesizing datasets collected by different research networks presents opportunities to expand the ecological gradients and scientific breadth of information available for inquiry. Synthesizing these data is challenging, especially considering the legacy of soil data that have already been collected and an expansion of new network science initiatives. To facilitate this effort, here we present the SOils DAta Harmonization database (SoDaH; https://lter.github.io/som-website, last access: 22 December 2020), a flexible database designed to harmonize diverse SOM datasets from multiple research networks. SoDaH is built on several network science efforts in the United States, but the tools built for SoDaH aim to provide an open-access resource to facilitate synthesis of soil carbon data. Moreover, SoDaH allows for individual locations to contribute results from experimental manipulations, repeated measurements from long-term studies, and local- to regional-scale gradients across ecosystems or landscapes. Finally, we also provide data visualization and analysis tools that can be used to query and analyze the aggregated database. The SoDaH v1.0 dataset is archived and available at https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/9733f6b6d2ffd12bf126dc36a763e0b4 (Wieder et al., 2020)