Coordinated parental provisioning is related to feeding rate and reproductive success in a songbird

In species with biparental care, there is sexual conflict over parental investment because each parent benefits when their partner bears more of the reproductive costs. Such conflict can be costly for offspring, but recent theoretical work predicts that parents can resolve sexual conflict through behavioral negotiation, specifically by alternating their trips to provision nestlings. However, this idea has received almost no empirical attention. In this study, we test the hypothesis that parents alternate their delivery of food to offspring in long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) and investigate whether this coordination of parental care is associated with greater reproductive success. We show that parents alternate provisioning trips more than would be expected by chance and that parental alternation is repeatable across multiple observation periods at a nest. More alternation is associated with increased visit synchrony and increased food delivery to nestlings. Moreover, we found that nests with more alternation were less likely to be predated, probably resulting from reduced activity around the nest when parents coordinate their provisioning behavior. Our results support the hypothesis that alternation of offspring provisioning is a behavioral adaptation to reduce the costs of sexual conflict

Resource extraction and infrastructure threaten forest cover and community rights

Mineral and hydrocarbon extraction and infrastructure are increasingly significant drivers of forest loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and threats to the rights of forest communities in forested areas of Amazonia, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica. Projected investments in these sectors suggest that future threats to forests and rights are substantial, particularly because resource extraction and infrastructure reinforce each other and enable population movements and agricultural expansion further into the forest. In each region, governments have made framework policy commitments to national and cross-border infrastructure integration, increased energy production, and growth strategies based on further exploitation of natural resources. This reflects political settlements among national elites that endorse resource extraction as a pathway toward development. Regulations that protect forests, indigenous and rural peoples’ lands, and conservation areas are being rolled back or are under threat. Small-scale gold mining has intensified in specific locations and also has become a driver of deforestation and degradation. Forest dwellers’ perceptions of insecurity have increased, as have documented homicides of environmental activists. To explain the relationships among extraction, infrastructure, and forests, this paper combines a geospatial analysis of forest loss overlapped with areas of potential resource extraction, interviews with key informants, and feedback from stakeholder workshops. The increasing significance of resource extraction and associated infrastructure as drivers of forest loss and rights violations merits greater attention in the empirical analyses and conceptual frameworks of Sustainability Science

Epidemiology of knife carrying among young British men

PURPOSE: Knife carrying has caused considerable public concern in the UK. But little is known of the epidemiology and characteristics of men who carry knives. We investigated associations with socioeconomic deprivation, area-level factors, and psychiatric morbidity. METHODS: Cross-sectional surveys of 5005 British men, 18-34 years, oversampling Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) men, lower social grades, and in London Borough of Hackney and Glasgow East. Participants completed questionnaires covering violent behaviour and psychiatric morbidity using standardised self-report instruments. Socioeconomic deprivation measured at small area level. RESULTS: Prevalence of knife carrying was 5.5% (4.8-6.9) and similar among white and BME subgroups. However, prevalence was twice the national rate in Glasgow East, and four times higher among Black men in Hackney, both areas with high levels of background violence and gang activity. Knife carrying was associated with multiple social problems, attitudes encouraging violence, and psychiatric morbidity, including antisocial personality disorder (AOR 9.94 95% CI 7.28-13.56), drug dependence (AOR 2.96 95% CI 1.90-4.66), and paranoid ideation (AOR 6.05 95% CI 4.47-8.19). There was no evidence of a linear relationship with socioeconomic deprivation. CONCLUSION: Men who carry knives represent an important public health problem with high levels of health service use. It is not solely a criminal justice issue. Rates are increased in areas where street gangs are active. Contact with the criminal justice system provides opportunity for targeted violence prevention interventions involving engagement with integrated psychiatric, substance misuse, and criminal justice agencies

Co-Occurrence Patterns of Common and Rare Leaf-Litter Frogs, Epiphytic Ferns and Dung Beetles across a Gradient of Human Disturbance

Indicator taxa are commonly used to identify priority areas for conservation or to measure biological responses to environmental change. Despite their widespread use, there is no general consensus about the ability of indicator taxa to predict wider trends in biodiversity. Many studies have focused on large-scale patterns of species co-occurrence to identify areas of high biodiversity, threat or endemism, but there is much less information about patterns of species co-occurrence at local scales. In this study, we assess fine-scale co-occurrence patterns of three indicator taxa (epiphytic ferns, leaf litter frogs and dung beetles) across a remotely sensed gradient of human disturbance in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We measure the relative contribution of rare and common species to patterns of total richness in each taxon and determine the ability of common and rare species to act as surrogate measures of human disturbance and each other. We find that the species richness of indicator taxa changed across the human disturbance gradient but that the response differed among taxa, and between rare and common species. Although we find several patterns of co-occurrence, these patterns differed between common and rare species. Despite showing complex patterns of species co-occurrence, our results suggest that species or taxa can act as reliable indicators of each other but that this relationship must be established and not assumed

Chapter 3: Mental health treatment and services

In this chapter reported use of psychotropic medication and psychological therapy are examined, as well as the extent of use of health care services for a mental health reason (GP, inpatient and outpatient health care) and day and community service use. It should be noted that rates presented are based on participant self-reports, not health records. Misclassifications of type of treatment or service are possible, and which was the providing organisation was not established

Ethnic disparities in psychotic experiences explained by area-level syndemic effects.

BACKGROUND: Ethnic inequalities in health outcomes are often explained by socioeconomic status and concentrated poverty. However, ethnic disparities in psychotic experiences are not completely attenuated by these factors. AIMS: We investigated whether disparities are better explained by interactions between individual risk factors and place-based clustering of disadvantage, termed a syndemic. METHOD: We performed a cross-sectional survey of 3750 UK men, aged 18-34 years, oversampling Black and minority ethnic (BME) men nationally, together with men residing in London Borough of Hackney. Participants completed questionnaires covering psychiatric symptoms, substance misuse, crime and violence, and risky sexual health behaviours. We included five psychotic experiences and a categorical measure of psychosis based on the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire. RESULTS: At national level, more Black men reported psychotic experiences but disparities disappeared following statistical adjustment for social position. However, large disparities for psychotic experiences in Hackney were not attenuated by adjustment for social factors in Black men (adjusted odds ratio, 3.24; 95% CI 2.14-4.91; P < 0.002), but were for South Asian men. A syndemic model of joint effects, adducing a four-component latent variable (psychotic experiences and anxiety, substance dependence, high-risk sexual behaviour and violence and criminality) showed synergy between components and explained persistent disparities in psychotic experiences. A further interaction confirmed area-level effects (Black ethnicity × Hackney residence, 0.834; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Syndemic effects result in higher rates of non-affective psychosis among BME persons in certain inner-urban settings. Further research should investigate how syndemics raise levels of psychotic experiences and related health conditions in Black men in specific places with multiple deprivations

Ethnic disparities in psychotic experiences explained by area-level syndemic effects

Background Ethnic inequalities in health outcomes are often explained by socioeconomic status and concentrated poverty. However, ethnic disparities in psychotic experiences are not completely attenuated by these factors. Aims We investigated whether disparities are better explained by interactions between individual risk factors and place-based clustering of disadvantage, termed a syndemic. Method We performed a cross-sectional survey of 3750 UK men, aged 18–34 years, oversampling Black and minority ethnic (BME) men nationally, together with men residing in London Borough of Hackney. Participants completed questionnaires covering psychiatric symptoms, substance misuse, crime and violence, and risky sexual health behaviours. We included five psychotic experiences and a categorical measure of psychosis based on the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire. Results At national level, more Black men reported psychotic experiences but disparities disappeared following statistical adjustment for social position. However, large disparities for psychotic experiences in Hackney were not attenuated by adjustment for social factors in Black men (adjusted odds ratio, 3.24; 95% CI 2.14–4.91; P < 0.002), but were for South Asian men. A syndemic model of joint effects, adducing a four-component latent variable (psychotic experiences and anxiety, substance dependence, high-risk sexual behaviour and violence and criminality) showed synergy between components and explained persistent disparities in psychotic experiences. A further interaction confirmed area-level effects (Black ethnicity × Hackney residence, 0.834; P < 0.001). Conclusions Syndemic effects result in higher rates of non-affective psychosis among BME persons in certain inner-urban settings. Further research should investigate how syndemics raise levels of psychotic experiences and related health conditions in Black men in specific places with multiple deprivations. Declaration of interest K.B. is Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Psychiatry but played no part in the review and decision proces

Changing women's roles, changing environmental knowledges: evidence from Upper Egypt

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which changing gender roles in a Bedouin community in Upper Egypt, brought about by settlement over the last 20 years on the shores of Lake Nasser, have impacted on the accumulation and development of indigenous environmental knowledges by Bedouin women. The research was carried out among four groups of Ababda Bedouin in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and involved in-depth monthly conversations carried out over a period of 12 months. The main conclusions of the study are that the women of the study area have had to develop new knowledges which, in some cases, are now different from those held by men because of the different economic circumstances in which many find themselves; that these knowledges are fluid, dynamic and ever-changing with their own internal dynamism; and that socially constructed notions of gender are vital in the development process, notions that are sensitive to both men's and women's interests and their interrelationships

Digitally supported CBT to reduce paranoia and improve reasoning for people with schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis: the SlowMo RCT

Background: Reasoning may play a causal role in paranoid delusions in psychosis. SlowMo, a new digitally supported cognitive–behavioural therapy, targets reasoning to reduce paranoia. Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of SlowMo therapy in reducing paranoia and in improving reasoning, quality of life and well-being, and to examine its mechanisms of action, moderators of effects and acceptability. Design: A parallel-arm, assessor-blind, randomised controlled trial comparing SlowMo plus treatment as usual with treatment as usual alone. An online independent system randomised eligible participants (1 : 1) using randomly varying permuted blocks, stratified by site and paranoia severity. Setting: Community mental health services in three NHS mental health trusts in England, plus patient identification centres. Participants: A total of 362 participants with schizophrenia-spectrum psychosis. Eligibility criteria comprised distressing and persistent (≥ 3 months) paranoia. Interventions: Eight face-to-face SlowMo sessions over 12 weeks plus treatment as usual, or treatment as usual alone (control group). Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was paranoia measured by the Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale and its revised version, together with observer-rated measures of persecutory delusions (The Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales delusion scale and delusion items from the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms). The secondary outcome measures were reasoning (measures of belief flexibility, jumping to conclusions, and fast and slow thinking), well-being, quality of life, schemas, service use and worry. Results: A total of 362 participants were recruited between 1 May 2017 and 14 May 2019: 181 in the SlowMo intervention group and 181 in the treatment-as-usual (control) group. One control participant subsequently withdrew. In total, 325 (90%) participants provided primary Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale outcome data at 12 weeks (SlowMo, n = 162; treatment as usual, n = 163). A total of 145 (80%) participants in the SlowMo group completed all eight therapy sessions. SlowMo was superior to treatment as usual in reducing paranoia on all three measures used: Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale total at 12 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.30, 95% confidence interval 0.09 to 0.51; p = 0.005) and 24 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.20, 95% confidence interval –0.02 to 0.40; p = 0.063); Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales delusions at 12 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.47, 95% confidence interval 0.17 to 0.78; p = 0.002) and 24 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.20 to 0.80; p = 0.001); and Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms persecutory delusions at 12 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.43, 95% confidence interval 0.03 to 0.84; p = 0.035) and 24 weeks (Cohen’s d = 0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.14 to 0.94; p = 0.009). Reasoning (belief flexibility, possibility of being mistaken and Fast and Slow Thinking Questionnaire measure) improved, but jumping to conclusions did not improve. Worry, quality of life, well-being and self-concept also improved, improving most strongly at 24 weeks. Baseline characteristics did not moderate treatment effects. Changes in belief flexibility and worry mediated changes in paranoia. Peer researcher-led qualitative interviews confirmed positive experiences of the therapy and technology. Nineteen participants in the SlowMo group and 21 participants in the treatment-as-usual group reported 54 adverse events (51 serious events, no deaths). Limitations: The trial included treatment as usual as the comparator and, thus, the trial design did not control for the effects of time with a therapist. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest trial of a psychological therapy for paranoia in people with psychosis and the first trial using a brief targeted digitally supported therapy. High rates of therapy uptake demonstrated acceptability. It was effective for paranoia, comparable to longer therapy, and equally effective for people with different levels of negative symptoms and working memory. Mediators were improvements in belief flexibility and worry. Our results suggest that targeting reasoning helps paranoia. Future work: Further examination of SlowMo mechanisms of action and implementation