Bringing migrants' perspectives in ‘migration as an adaptation strategy’ discourses

Over the last few years, migration is increasingly being framed as an adaptation strategy to deal with climate change, to move away from apocalyptic representa-tions of migration in debates on climate change. While acknowledging the merit of this discourse, this commentary calls for more attention to include migrants' perspectives in debates on environmental migration and reflecting on how such discourses work out in practice. As most studies have focused on regions of ori-gin being impacted adversely by climate change, and the ability/willingness to migrate, the perspectives of migrants themselves and how they feel about their migration and integration, whether internally or internationally, facing slow- onset or sudden climate impacts, have not been discussed thoroughly. This point of view is needed to grasp the preconditions of success for such discourses, as migrants occupy vulnerable positions in immigrant societies, but are pressured to have a ‘double engagement’ towards both the region of origin and destinatio

Examining the role of the diaspora in addressing the interconnections between human health and environmental change::The case of northern Senegalese communities

Diaspora communities are a growing source of external assistance and resources to meet unmet needs and to strengthen existing health systems in their home countries. Although a growing number of articles have been published in this realm, very few have looked at diaspora communities’ role and the place translocal communities give to health (care) in the various remittance dynamics, whilst including power relationships and environmental change. This article examines the motivations and practices through which Senegalese diasporas engage with the health system in their origin country and what barriers they face in their interventions. The results of the migration-environment-health nexus are critically discussed with a political ecology approach. We found that households and villages with a critical number of members abroad, and with strong political and/or international networks, are better off and less exposed to health risks in the face of adverse extreme climate impacts. <br/

Monitoring ethnic minorities in the Netherlands

Item does not contain fulltextThe article first summarises the history of ethnic minority policy in the Netherlands and the development of the ‘ethnic minority’ and ‘allochthonous’ categories, which are peculiar in comparative perspective in emphasising socio-economic disadvantage as a constitutive dimension of minority status and in setting the minority question within the broader Dutch political principle of ‘pillarisation’. The article then examines the use of statistics in public policy, in a context where the national census has been discontinued since 1971, focusing more specifically on the case of education, where major statistical efforts have been devoted to identifying patterns of disadvantage and integration. Finally, the article briefly examines current debates on the situation of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands in the context of growing questioning of established Dutch models of minority policy.13 p

Post-traumatic stress disorder after civilian traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence rates

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Much research on PTSD and TBI has focused on military conflict settings. Less is known about PTSD in civilian TBI. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of PTSD after mild and moderate/severe TBI in civilian populations. We further aimed to explore the influence of methodological quality and assessment methods. A systematic literature search was performed on studies reporting on PTSD in civilian TBI, excluding studies on military populations. The risk of bias was assessed using the MORE-checklist. Meta-analysis was conducted for overall prevalence rates for PTSD with sensitivity analyses for the severity of TBI. Fifty-two studies were included, of which 31 were graded as low risk of bias. Prevalence rates of PTSD in low risk of bias studies varied widely (from 2.6% to 36%) with a pooled prevalence rate of 15.6%. Pooled prevalence rates of PTSD for mild TBI (13.5%, 95%CI:11.7-15.3; I²=2%) did not differ from moderate/severe TBI (11.8, 95%CI:7.5-16.1; I²=63%). Similar rates were reported in studies using different approaches and times of assessment. Although most studies that compared participants with TBI to trauma patients and healthy controls found no difference in prevalence rates of PTSD, a meta-analysis across studies revealed a higher prevalence of PTSD in patients with TBI (OR:1.73, 95%CI:1.21-2.47). This review highlights variability between studies and emphasizes the need for higher quality studies. Further research is warranted to determine risk factors for the development of PTSD after TBI

Sleep and the heart: interoceptive differences linked to poor experiential sleep quality in anxiety and depression

Interoception is the sense through which internal bodily changes are signalled and perceived. Individual differences in interoception are linked to emotional style and vulnerability to affective disorders. Here we test how experiential sleep quality relates to dimensions of interoceptive ability. 180 adults (42 ‘non-clinical’ individuals, 138 patients accessing mental health services) rated their quality of sleep before performing tests of cardiac interoception. Poor sleep quality was associated with lower measures of interoceptive performance accuracy, and higher self-report measures of interoceptive sensibility in individuals with diagnoses of depression and/or anxiety. Additionally, poor sleep quality was associated with impaired metacognitive interoceptive awareness in patients with diagnoses of depression (alone or with anxiety). Thus, poor sleep quality, a common early expression of psychological disorder, impacts cardiac interoceptive ability and experience across diagnoses. Sleep disruption can contribute to the expression of affective psychopathology through effects on perceptual and interpretative dimensions of bodily awareness

Kultuurstereotipering in Nederlandse moedertaal-taalhandboeke

Based on the assumption that textbooks serve as a mirror of the social and political order, the purpose of this article is to provide insight into the role of textbooks in the maintenance and legitimization of ethnic power relations. This qualitative study investigates visual representations in Dutch mother tongue language textbooks. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) supported by a thematic analysis evaluate the visual material of one popular Dutch textbook series in terms of cultural stereotyping of the “other”. The conceptual framework comprises an explication of the concepts and theories on attitude, culture and visual studies. Influential issues on Dutch textbook representation are described in the literature study. The findings show that the rethoric confirming the “other”ness of the “other” in Dutch textbooks, has not changed much since the research of Teun van Dijk in 1987. The visual material in the Dutch data is polarised by the model example of the dominant white group on the one hand and the problematic, poor and primitive of the non-Western world on the other hand. The findings are presented as themes from the thematic analysis.gv201

Interoceptive cardiac signals selectively enhance fear memories

Fear is coupled to states of physiological arousal. We tested how learning and memory of threat, i.e. conditioned fear, is influenced by interoceptive signals. Forty healthy individuals were exposed to two threat (CS+, paired with electrocutaneous shocks) and two safety (CS-) stimuli, specifically time-locked to either cardiac ventricular systole (when arterial baroreceptors signal cardiovascular arousal to brainstem), or diastole (when these afferent signals are quiescent). Threat learning was indexed objectively using skin conductance responses (SCRs). During acquisition of threat contingencies, cardiac effects dominated: Stimuli (both CS+ and CS-) presented at systole evoked greater SCR responses, relative to stimuli (both CS+ and CS-) presented at diastole. This difference was amplified in more anxious individuals. Learning of conditioned fear was established by the end of the acquisition phase, which was followed by an extinction phase when unpaired CSs were presented at either the same or switched cardiac contingencies. One day later, electrocutaneous shocks triggered the reinstatement of fear responses. Subsequent presentation of stimuli previously encoded at systole evoked higher SCRs. Moreover, only those participants for whom stimuli had the same cardiac-contingency over both acquisition and extinction phases retained conditioned fear memory (i.e. CS + > CS-). Our findings reveal two important cardiac afferent effects on threat learning and memory: 1) Cardiac signals bias processing towards threat. 2) Cardiac signals are a context for fear memory; altering this context can disrupt the memory. These observations suggest how threat reactivity may be reinforced and maintained by both acute and enduring states of cardiac arousal

Impact of cardiac interoception cues and confidence on voluntary decisions to make or withhold action in an intentional inhibition task

Interoceptive signals concerning the internal physiological state of the body influence motivational feelings and action decisions. Cardiovascular arousal may facilitate inhibition to mitigate risks of impulsive actions. Baroreceptor discharge at ventricular systole underpins afferent signalling of cardiovascular arousal. In a modified Go/NoGo task, decisions to make or withhold actions on ‘Choose’ trials were not influenced by cardiac phase, nor individual differences in heart rate variability. However, cardiac interoceptive awareness and insight predicted how frequently participants chose to act, and their speed of action: Participants with better awareness and insight tended to withhold actions and respond slower, while those with poorer awareness and insight tended to execute actions and respond faster. Moreover, self-reported trait urgency correlated negatively with intentional inhibition rates. These findings suggest that lower insight into bodily signals is linked to urges to move the body, putatively by engendering noisier sensory input into motor decision processes eliciting reactive behaviour