On the Old-Javanese Cantakaparwa and Its Tale of Sutasoma

Indonesi

Wastewater use in urban agriculture: an exposure and risk assessment in Accra, Ghana

Wastewater use in urban agriculture is common as a result of rapid urbanisation and increasingcompetition for water. This study sought to assess critical exposures associated with the transmission of faecal pathogens among farmers and consumers of wastewater irrigated produce andto assess the adoption of the multiple-barrier approach advocated by the WHO guidelines tominimise health risks. From September 2012 to August 2013, 323 soil and irrigation water samples,and 501 raw produce and ready-to-eat salad samples were collected from fields, markets,and kitchens in Accra, Ghana. All samples were analysed for E. coli using standard procedures.In addition, 693 participants including farmers, vendors, and consumers were interviewed andobserved. The results showed that irrigation water was significantly more contaminated thanfarm soil, though exposure to soil was found to pose the key risk to farmers due to hand-to mouth  events (10 events/day). Over 80% of the produce samples were found contaminated with E. coli, with street food salad found to be the most contaminated (4.23 Log E. coli/g). Risk factors identified for produce contamination included farm soil, wastewater use, and poor food and environmental hygiene. Awareness of the source of irrigation water was low, but despite the high awareness of health risk, consumers did not prioritize health indicators when buying produce.The study recommends the promotion of interventions that would result in more direct benefits to producers and vendors, together with hygiene education/inspection, hygiene certification, andenforcement of food safety byelaws in order to protect health.Keywords: Ghana, wastewater irrigation, produce, risk perceptions, multiple-barrier approac

Use of untreated wastewater in peri-urban agriculture in Pakistan: risks and opportunities

Water reuse / Waste waters / Water quality / Groundwater / Irrigation practices / Soil properties / Environmental effects / Conjunctive use / Pakistan / Haroonabad

Mentalizing Mediates the Association Between Childhood Maltreatment and Adolescent Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Traits

Background: Childhood maltreatment is theorized to undermine the development of mentalizing and to disrupt the development of healthy narcissism and the integration of personality at the level of affect and interpersonal regulation. Consistent with this, mentalizing can be expected to mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and vulnerable and grandiose narcissism as well as borderline personality traits, but this has not been examined in adolescents. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine associations between childhood maltreatment and adolescent personality disorder traits and test the mediating role of mentalizing in a sample of 263 adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21. Methods: Participants recruited from school and a tertiary institution completed the Childhood Experiences of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA-Q), the Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children (BPFS-C), the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) and the Reflective Function Questionnaire for Youth (RFQ-Y). Results: Adolescents with histories of sexual and physical abuse reported significantly more borderline personality features, as well as vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. They also reported signficantly more mentalizing difficulties including confusion regarding mental states and excessive certainty regarding mental states of others. Confusion regarding mental states partially mediated the relation between emotional abuse and borderline personality traits, as well as vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. Excessive certainty regarding the mental states of others mediated the relationship between childhood experiences of role reversal and grandiose narcissism. Conclusion: The findings are consistent with a mentalization model of adolescent personality difficulties and show that the relation between childhood maltreatment and personality disorder traits in adolescents may be in part understood in terms of the impact of such experiences on different dimensions of mentalizing

Urban wastewater: A valuable resource for agriculture - A case study from Haroonabad, Pakistan

Waste waters / Irrigation water / Water reuse / Economic analysis / Soil properties / Households / Water availability / Water use / Water quality / Groundwater / Public health / Risks / Case studies

Assessment of the influence of intrinsic environmental and geographical factors on the bacterial ecology of pit latrines

Funding Information: This research received financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (grant number OPP52641). AWW and JP were supported by the Wellcome Trust [grant number 098051]. AWW and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, receive core funding support from the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analysis Service (RESAS). UZ is funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Independent Research Fellowship (NE/L011956/1). CQ is funded through an Medical Research Council fellowship (MR/M50161X/1) as part of the MRC Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics consortium (MR/L015080/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Measuring Reflective Functioning in Adolescents: Relations to Personality Disorders and Psychological Difficulties

Background: Reflective Functioning (RF) is considered to play a central role in risk and resilience for psychological difficulties such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and has become an important treatment target of transdiagnostic psychosocial interventions like Mentalization Based Therapy. However, a lack of measures to assess RF in adolescents has hampered research that can further elucidate the role of RF in different types of psychopathology. Objective: The objective of the present study was to examine the validity of the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire for Youth (RFQ-Y), examine the factor structure of the french RFQ-Y, the relationship between RFQ-Y and social cognition, psychological difficulties, BPD and narcissistic personality disorders. Methods: A total of 533 adolescents and young adults (age 12 - 21) from the community completed the RFQ-Y, the Child Behaviour Checklist, the Borderline Personality Features Scale and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. A subsample of 150 participants completed the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC). Results: Three factors were identified. Uncertainty/confusion was strongly positively correlated with psychological difficulties, especially symptoms of borderline personality disorder. Interest/curiosity was negatively correlated with and psychopathology and Excessive Certainty correlated significantly with grandiose narcissism. RFQ-Y factors correlated more strongly with psychopathology than the MASC scales. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the validity of self-report measures like the RFQ-Y and its utility for identifying problematic styles of mentalizing associated with increased risk of psychopathology in general, as well as difficulties like narcissism in particular

Development and validation of a self-report measure assessing failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships

Background: The way people process trauma and adverse relationships may be more predictive of subsequent adaptation than trauma exposure in itself. However, there is currently no self-report instrument assessing failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships. Objective: We developed the Failure to Mentalize Trauma Questionnaire (FMTQ) and evaluated its psychometric properties. The FMTQ is a 29-item self-report instrument designed to assess different indications of failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships. Participants and setting A total of 975 participants (84 % women; 37 % exposed to child maltreatment) were recruited in the course of larger research protocols on parenting. Methods: Participants completed the FMTQ and measures of childhood maltreatment, psychopathology (post-traumatic stress symptoms, dissociative symptoms, level of personality dysfunction), general mentalization and intimate partner violence. Results: Exploratory factor analysis, supported by a confirmatory factor analysis, identified seven factors with good internal consistency that corresponded to different types of failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships and that loaded on a general factor. A dose-effect association was observed between the severity of childhood maltreatment, and the severity of failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships (rs = .49, p < .01). The FMTQ total score explained a significant proportion of variance in psychopathology and intimate partner violence, both in participants with histories of childhood maltreatment and participants without childhood maltreatment. Conclusion: The FMTQ is a promising, concise and efficient measure of failures in the mentalization of trauma and adverse relationships that may facilitate clinical screening and research with adults who experienced trauma