Overcoming Barriers to Skills Training in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Qualitative Interview Study

Despite evidence suggesting that skills training is an important mechanism of change in dialectical behaviour therapy, little research exploring facilitators and barriers to this process has been conducted. The study aimed to explore clients’ experiences of barriers to dialectical behaviour therapy skills training and how they felt they overcame these barriers, and to compare experiences between treatment completers and dropouts. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 40 clients with borderline personality disorder who had attended a dialectical behaviour therapy programme. A thematic analysis of participants’ reported experiences found that key barriers to learning the skills were anxiety during the skills groups and difficulty understanding the material. Key barriers to using the skills were overwhelming emotions which left participants feeling unable or unwilling to use them. Key ways in which participants reported overcoming barriers to skills training were by sustaining their commitment to attending therapy and practising the skills, personalising the way they used them, and practising them so often that they became an integral part of their behavioural repertoire. Participants also highlighted a number of key ways in which they were supported with their skills training by other skills group members, the group therapists, their individual therapist, friends and family. Treatment dropouts were more likely than completers to describe anxiety during the skills groups as a barrier to learning, and were less likely to report overcoming barriers to skills training via the key processes outlined above. The findings of this qualitative study require replication, but could be used to generate hypotheses for testing in further research on barriers to skills training, how these relate to dropout, and how they can be overcome. The paper outlines several such suggestions for further research

SNAPSHOT USA 2019 : a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August - 24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the USA. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as well as future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human–wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.Peer reviewe

Integration of Multiple Datasets to Evaluate Red Fox Distribution

To address declining global biodiversity, large-scale and long-term standardized wildlife surveys allow biologists to directly compare data across time and space to identify drivers of species declines. However, standardized surveys are resource-intensive, often leading to significant data gaps. One source of abundant and inexpensive data are wildlife observations from the public (e.g., community/citizen science). When combined, community observations can provide wildlife data from areas that lack high-quality survey data, while standardized surveys can account for the opportunistic nature that makes community observations difficult to use in wildlife studies. Therefore, integrating high-quality survey data with abundant community observations may produce more accurate wildlife distribution models than models produced with either dataset alone. I aim to determine the efficacy of integrating standardized survey data with community-sourced observations to model the environmental factors that influence species distributions. I used data from Snapshot USA, a standardized nation-wide camera trap survey, and iNaturalist, an online platform for community members to upload wildlife observations, to compare red fox (Vulpes vulpes) distribution models created with both datasets. Preliminary results suggest that the Snapshot USA and iNaturalist datasets do produce differing red fox distribution models. Although analyses are ongoing, I expect to find that species distribution models created with integrated datasets will provide more accurate information on environmental factors influencing species distributions than models created with Snapshot USA or iNaturalist datasets alone. The framework I establish to integrate standardized wildlife surveys with community-generated data will be used to create more accurate distribution models for species of conservation concern

Disturbance type and species life history predict mammal responses to humans

Human activity and land use change impact every landscape on Earth, driving declines in many animal species while benefiting others. Species ecological and life history traits may predict success in human- dominated landscapes such that only species with - winning- combinations of traits will persist in disturbed environments. However, this link between species traits and successful coexistence with humans remains obscured by the complexity of anthropogenic disturbances and variability among study systems. We compiled detection data for 24 mammal species from 61 populations across North America to quantify the effects of (1) the direct presence of people and (2) the human footprint (landscape modification) on mammal occurrence and activity levels. Thirty- three percent of mammal species exhibited a net negative response (i.e., reduced occurrence or activity) to increasing human presence and/or footprint across populations, whereas 58% of species were positively associated with increasing disturbance. However, apparent benefits of human presence and footprint tended to decrease or disappear at higher disturbance levels, indicative of thresholds in mammal species- capacity to tolerate disturbance or exploit human- dominated landscapes. Species ecological and life history traits were strong predictors of their responses to human footprint, with increasing footprint favoring smaller, less carnivorous, faster- reproducing species. The positive and negative effects of human presence were distributed more randomly with respect to species trait values, with apparent winners and losers across a range of body sizes and dietary guilds. Differential responses by some species to human presence and human footprint highlight the importance of considering these two forms of human disturbance separately when estimating anthropogenic impacts on wildlife. Our approach provides insights into the complex mechanisms through which human activities shape mammal communities globally, revealing the drivers of the loss of larger predators in human- modified landscapes.Human activity and land use change are driving declines in many animal species while benefiting others, but predicting which species will successfully coexist with humans remains a challenge. We compiled detection data for 24 mammal species from 61 populations across North America and showed that species life history traits were strong predictors of their responses to human footprint (landscape modification), with increasing footprint favoring smaller, less carnivorous, faster- reproducing species. Positive and negative effects of direct human presence (e.g., recreation, hunting) were distributed more randomly across species, with apparent winners and losers across a range of body sizes and dietary guilds.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168486/1/gcb15650.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168486/2/gcb15650_am.pd

Disturbance type and species life history predict mammal responses to humans

Human activity and land use change impact every landscape on Earth, driving declines in many animal species while benefiting others. Species ecological and life history traits may predict success in human- dominated landscapes such that only species with - winning- combinations of traits will persist in disturbed environments. However, this link between species traits and successful coexistence with humans remains obscured by the complexity of anthropogenic disturbances and variability among study systems. We compiled detection data for 24 mammal species from 61 populations across North America to quantify the effects of (1) the direct presence of people and (2) the human footprint (landscape modification) on mammal occurrence and activity levels. Thirty- three percent of mammal species exhibited a net negative response (i.e., reduced occurrence or activity) to increasing human presence and/or footprint across populations, whereas 58% of species were positively associated with increasing disturbance. However, apparent benefits of human presence and footprint tended to decrease or disappear at higher disturbance levels, indicative of thresholds in mammal species- capacity to tolerate disturbance or exploit human- dominated landscapes. Species ecological and life history traits were strong predictors of their responses to human footprint, with increasing footprint favoring smaller, less carnivorous, faster- reproducing species. The positive and negative effects of human presence were distributed more randomly with respect to species trait values, with apparent winners and losers across a range of body sizes and dietary guilds. Differential responses by some species to human presence and human footprint highlight the importance of considering these two forms of human disturbance separately when estimating anthropogenic impacts on wildlife. Our approach provides insights into the complex mechanisms through which human activities shape mammal communities globally, revealing the drivers of the loss of larger predators in human- modified landscapes.Human activity and land use change are driving declines in many animal species while benefiting others, but predicting which species will successfully coexist with humans remains a challenge. We compiled detection data for 24 mammal species from 61 populations across North America and showed that species life history traits were strong predictors of their responses to human footprint (landscape modification), with increasing footprint favoring smaller, less carnivorous, faster- reproducing species. Positive and negative effects of direct human presence (e.g., recreation, hunting) were distributed more randomly across species, with apparent winners and losers across a range of body sizes and dietary guilds.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168486/1/gcb15650.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/168486/2/gcb15650_am.pd

Race Portrayals in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa Television Advertisements

The current study examines racial portrayals in television advertisements from Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Whites are over-represented relative to their actual demographic presence in all three countries, and both Blacks and Whites are depicted as over-employed. In general, however, depictions are not significantly different for either race, though there is a hint that a stereotyped portrayal of Blacks as athletes and/or entertainer may be going global