Farmers tell us how to help improve their mental health help-seeking

Farmers’ mental health help-seeking is reported to be poor. Mental health help-seeking is seeking help from professionals such as GPs and psychologists for issues relating to distress or mental health (Rickwood & Thomas, 2012). Timely mental health help-seeking behaviour is important because it may minimise any negative outcomes. At present, there is no research that has identified how to target farmers to improve their mental health help-seeking. It is known that tailored approaches to intervention are superior and this is likely to be so for intervening with farmers whom have a strong culture and a vastly different situation than metropolitan populations. This study is part of a body of work exploring the factors that influence mental health help-seeking in farmers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 farmers (farming as their occupation) as well as 10 farmers’ partners (for their additional insight), all of whom resided/worked in Queensland. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) technique of thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Based on the data three themes were developed regarding intervention: education (what needs to be taught and how to teach it), the medium (which mediums preferred and engagement with them) and multi-faceted programs (Many aspects important such as community input and role of GPs, family, and friends). This research improves the knowledge on how to target interventions, including the medium, specifically to farmers for mental health help-seeking. The findings could be utilised in the design process to create interventions that are more likely to have an impact, specific for farmers to improve their mental health help-seeking behaviour

Farmers are not seeking help: what does service provision have to do with it?

Aim The rate of suicide in farmers is twice that of the general population. Help-seeking from health professionals, if this occurs in a timely manner, can significantly minimise the negative consequences of mental ill-health. However, it has now been demonstrated that farmers as a group are reluctant to seek help for mental ill-health, which likely contributes to this problem. Previous research has demonstrated that General Practitioners are the most commonly visited health professional in rural farming areas, however, they are under-utilised as a means of seeking help. This research aimed to examine the potential barriers and facilitators of mental health help-seeking in farmers, that relate to the provision of service from the perspective of farmers. Methods The present research draws on findings from semi‐structured interviews with 10 farmers residing in Queensland. The techniques of Braun and Clarke (2006) were used to guide the thematic analysis. Results Several key factors relating to services were identified as having the potential to directly or indirectly influence mental health help-seeking. These include: how services are marketed/packaged and delivered, availability and accessibility, continuity of care, having ‘knowledgeable bush practitioners’ as well as perception of good outcomes. Conclusion It is expected that this research will create a better understanding of the farmers’ perspective relating to service provision for the purpose of seeking help for mental health. The outcomes have implications for developing and providing interventions for farmers to promote services for the purpose of mental health help-seeking as well as create awareness in service provider and other stakeholders of issues that prevent timely help-seeking

The concentration and biomagnification of PCBs and PBDEs across four trophic levels in a marine food web.

Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Maine Environment of the North-East Atlantic are required to undertake monitoring and assessment of both inorganic and organic contaminants. There is a requirement to assess contaminants across different trophic levels on an ecosystem-specific basis. However, this is currently constrained by the availability of relevant samples to cover the full range of trophic levels. This study investigates the variability (inter- and intra-species variation) of the concentrations and distributions of thirty-two polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners and nine polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners in twenty-six species covering four trophic levels from different geographic locations around Scotland. Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) were calculated using a traditional method and a balanced method for both the ICES-7 PCBs and BDE47, to refine and improve the application of TMFs to assess and predict biomagnification risk to biota in the marine environment. There were clear differences in congener percentage distribution between sample categories and species, with differences influenced by physiological processes and eco-biological parameters. Trophic magnification was found to occur for the ICES-7 PCBs and BDE47 using the traditional method, with the highest degree of trophic magnification reported for CB52. An unbalanced dataset was found to influence the calculated TMF and in some cases, the overall conclusion of the trophic transfer of PCB and PBDE congeners. The balanced method is highly recommended for calculating TMFs to ensure that the TMF is a true indication of the biomagnification potential, particularly when conducting regional comparisons for which sampling requirements are difficult to achieve

Author Correction: The Aurora B specificity switch is required to protect from non-disjunction at the metaphase/anaphase transition.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class II sequence polymorphism in long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) from the North Atlantic

Funding Silvia S. Monteiro and Marisa Ferreira were supported by a Ph.D. grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (ref SFRH/BD/38735/2007 and SFRH/BD/30240/2006, respectively). Alfredo López was supported by a postdoctoral grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (ref SFRH/BPD/82407/2011). Catarina Eira is supported by CESAM (UID/AMB/50017), from FCT/MEC through national funds and FEDER (PT2020, Compete 2020). The work related with strandings and tissue collection in Portugal was partially supported by the SafeSea Project EEAGrants PT 0039 (supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism), by the Project MarPro–Life09 NAT/PT/000038 (funded by the European Union–Program Life+) and by the project CetSenti FCT RECI/AAG-GLO/0470/2012; FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027472 (Funded by the Program COMPETE and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia).Peer reviewedPostprin

1951: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Delivered in the Auditorium of Abilene Christian College Abilene, Texas February 18-22, 1951 Price, $3.00 FIRM FOUNDATION PUBLISHING HOUSE Austin, Texa

Long-finned pilot whale population diversity and structure in Atlantic waters assessed through biogeochemical and genetic markers

Acknowledgements. Cetacean samples were collected under the auspices of stranding monitoring programs run by the Sociedade Portuguesa de Vida Selvagem, the Coordinadora para o Estudio dos Mamíferos Mariños (supported by the regional government Xunta de Galicia), the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme and the Scottish Agriculture College Veterinary Science Division (jointly funded by Defra and the Devolved Governments of Scotland and Wales), the Marine Mammals Research Group of the Institute of Marine Research (Norway), the Museum of Natural History of the Faroe Islands and the International Fund for Animal Welfare Marine Mammal Rescue and Research Program (USA). The authors thank all the members of these institutions and organizations for their assistance with data and sample collection. S.S.M., P.M.F. and M.F. were supported by PhD grants from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (POPH/FSE ref SFRH/BD/ 38735/ 2007, SFRH/BD/36766/2007 and SFRH/BD/30240/ 2006, respectively). A.L. was supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (ref SFRH/BPD/82407/2011). The work related to strandings and tissue collection in Portugal was partially supported by the SafeSea project EEAGrants PT 0039 (supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism), the MarPro project Life09 NAT/PT/000038 (funded by the European Union program LIFE+) and the project CetSenti FCT RECI/AAG-GLO/0470/2012 (FCOMP- 01-0124-FEDER-027472) (funded by the program COMPETE and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia). G.J.P. thanks the University of Aveiro and Caixa Geral de Depósitos (Portugal) for financial support. The authors acknowledge the assistance of the chemical analysts at Marine Scotland Science with the fatty acid analysis.Peer reviewedPostprintPublisher PD

In vivo formation of natural HgSe nanoparticles in the liver and brain of pilot whales

Acknowledgments Z.G. thanks to the College of Physical Sciences at University of Aberdeen and Chevron USA for the provided studentship. P.M.K. is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT120100277). Parts of this research were undertaken on the XFM beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, Victoria, Australia. The assistance of Daryl Howard (XFM beamline, Australian Synchrotron) is acknowledged. Although EPA contributed to this article, the research presented was not performed by or funded by EPA and was not subject to EPA's quality system requirements. Consequently, the views, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent EPA's views or policies. MRCAT operations are supported by the Department of Energy and the MRCAT member institutions. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The authors declare no competing financial interests. F.L.R. and A.B. acknowledge Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and Marine Scotland for funding. Author Contributions E.M.K and J.F. designed the experiments. Z.G. measured total Hg and conducted Hg speciation. Total Se was determined by A.R. and Z.G. M.M.L. performed Se speciation and 2D imaging by LA-ICP-MS was done by D.S.U. XANES was performed by K.S. and XRF by E.L. and P.M.K. Samples were obtained by E.M.K. through A.B. and age determination was done by F.R. spICP-MS was performed by E.H.L., K.L., G.W. and Z.G. The manuscript was written by Z.G. and all authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD