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Background: There is a strong link between trauma exposure and serious mental health conditions (SMHCs), such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The majority of research in the field has focused on childhood trauma as a risk factor for developing an SMHC and on samples from high-income countries. There is less research on having an SMHC as a risk factor for exposure to traumatic events, and particularly on populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).This scoping review aimed to synthesize the nature and extent of research on traumatic events that adults with SMHCs face in LMICs. It was conducted across five databases: PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection and Africa-Wide Information/NiPad in December 2023 and by hand searching citation lists., Findings: The database search returned 4,111 articles. After removing duplicates and following a rigorous screening process, 51 articles met criteria for inclusion. There was one case study, one mixed methods study, 12 qualitative studies and 37 quantitative studies. Ten countries were represented, with the most studies from India (n = 19), Ethiopia (n = 9) and China (n = 6). Schizophrenia was the most studied type of SMHC. Of the trauma exposures, more than 76% were on interpersonal violence, such as sexual and physical violence. Of the studies on interpersonal violence, more than 23% were on physical restraint (e.g., shackling) in the community or in hospital settings. There were no studies on man-made or natural disasters., Implications: Much of our data in this population are informed by a small subset of countries and by certain types of interpersonal violence. Future research should aim to expand to additional countries in LMICs. Additional qualitative research would likely identify and contextualize other trauma types among adults with SMHCs in LMICs., Competing Interests: None., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

The great challenge of reducing soil nutrient depletion and assuring agricultural system productivity in low-income countries caused by limited synthetic fertilizer use necessitates local and cost-effective nutrient sources. We estimated the changes of the nitrogen budget of agricultural systems in the East African Community from 1961 to 2018 to address the challenges of insufficient nitrogen inputs and serious soil nitrogen depletion in agricultural systems of the East African Community region. Results showed that total nitrogen input increased from 12.5 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 1960s to 21.8 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2000s and 27 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2010s. Total nitrogen crop uptake increased from 12.8 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 1960s to 18.2 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2000s and 21.8 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2010s. Soil nitrogen stock increased from -2.0 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 1960s to -0.5 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2000s and 0.3 kg N ha -1 yr -1 in the 2010s. Our results allow us to substantiate for the first time that soil nitrogen depletion decreases with increasing input of nitrogen in agricultural systems of the East African Community region. This suggests that increases in nitrogen inputs through biological nitrogen fixation and animal manure are the critical nitrogen management practices to curb soil nitrogen depletion and sustain agricultural production systems in the East African Community region in order to meet food demand for a growing population., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-023-00881-0., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests., (© INRAE and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)