Inland Villages Research Articles

Emerging neglected helminthiasis and determinants of multiple helminth infections in flood-prone township in Myanmar

BackgroundMyanmar has similar agro-based ecology and environmental risks as others in the Greater Mekong sub-region leading to the broad array of helminthic infections. Basic health staff (BHS) from the public sector forms a key stakeholder group in deworming interventions. The study aimed to ascertain the prevalence and determinants of multiple species helminth infections to promote township-level integrated interventions.MethodsA cross-sectional implementation research study in 2017 covered randomly selected 240 households in four villages of Shwegyin Township. Trained interviewers administered the pre-tested structured questionnaire to either the household head or the assigned person concerning their knowledge, perceptions, practices, food habits, and deworming experience. Concomitantly, the research team collected a single stool sample from each of 698 participants (age range of 8 months to 87 years) from 93% (224/240) of eligible households and examined by Kato-Katz smear microscopy. Eventually, 16 BHS joined the interactive dialogue session based on research evidence and knowledge translated for further validation.ResultsThe estimated prevalence of at least one helminth infection was 24% [168/698; 95% CI 21.0–27.0]. Apart from the soil-transmitted helminths (14%), zoonotic helminths especially Taenia spp. (0.7%) and Schistosoma spp. (3%) were detected. Almost half of the seasonally mobile gold panning workers (12/25; 48%) and 46% of pre-school-age children had helminth infections. Community risk groups at riverside villages had significantly higher multiple species helminth infection than those from inland villages (AOR = 10.9; 95% CI 4.9–24.2). Gold panning workers had higher infection rates than other categories (AOR = 2.5; 95% CI 0.6–9.5) but not significant. In flood-prone areas, householders failed to follow the guidelines to construct/re-construct specific type of sanitary latrines and challenges remained in disseminating health messages for community engagement. The innovative ideas recapitulated by BHS included the integration of health talks during the sessions for small agricultural loans and to harness advocacy with water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions.ConclusionsThe emerging evidence of neglected zoonotic helminths required attention to introduce the periodic mopping-up and the “selective deworming plan” for vulnerable groups to cover the missed targets. Further multidisciplinary research to confirm the intermediate hosts and vectors of zoonotic helminths in the environment is essential for surveillance and response.

Public Trust in Environmental Decision-Making: A Case Study of Shale Gas Regulation in Kent County, New Brunswick

The existence of trust and confidence in public authorities and in the rules and the outcomes of environmental and other regulatory assessment processes is highly important. This case examines a region that was overwhelmingly distrustful of public authorities making decisions about shale gas development. Kent County is a rural area in New Brunswick, Canada, featuring coastal and inland villages and a unique mix of three cultures (Mi’kmaq, Acadian, and Anglophone). Through a combination of interviews (n=20) and a survey (n=500), we identified three main reasons for the lack of confidence: (1) skepticism over capacity; (2) scandals and controversies; and (3) challenges of aligning with indigenous epistemologies and questions of representation.

TANAH ASET PT. PANCA WIRA USAHA MILIK PERUSAHAAN DAERAH PROPINSI JAWA TIMUR DIDUDUKI MASYARAKAT

The origin of land asset PT Panca Wira Usaha owned by East Java Province company, obtained from former land of western rights, relics of Dutch company at the time of colonize in Indonesia. Dutch dominate the land through Verenigde Oost - Indische Compagnie (VOC). VOC is a Dutch-owned legal entity engaged in trade. Before VOC control land in Indonesia, the control of the land is still done by Kings in the territory of his power, as well as by the customary law community within its territory.
 When the VOC came to Indonesia around 1577 with the intention to trade and made the kingdom of Mataram a protectorate and since then the role of local officials gradually began to change.
 The arrival of VOC in Indonesia aims for the following matters:
 
 Prevent competition among Dutch traders
 Obtain a trade monopoly in south Asia or exclusively master the spices both in producing and trading
 
 VOC as a Dutch-owned legal entity engaged in trade, it is a little more know the public legal aspects as the influence of Roman law, although no relation belongs to the land, but VOC make agreements with the landowners as if to voc charge as an obligation to rent land through an agreement that is essentially so that the visible aspect of democracy appears.
 The Dutch Government established factories in big cities after the VOC successfully mastered inland village for agriculture, plantation and others. One of the factory is Oil Factory "N. V OLIEFABRIEKEN INLINDIE" or known as "Pabrik Minyak Nabati-Yasa PT Panca Wira Usaha", located in Kediri City Government of East Java Province, which is currently a problem between PT Panca Wira Usaha, East Java Provincial Government Owned Enterprises with the Community of the landowners.
 The main issue is the provisions of the Law regulating the Dutch Heritage Company, such as Law No. 86 Of 1958 about the nationalization of Dutch-owned enterprises in Indonesia, not supported by UUPA No. 5 Of 1960 on the basic rules of agrarian basic.
 While UUPA No. 5 Of 1960 has not been clear in explaining and describing the meaning and substance of the land of the former western rights of the Dutch company, resulting in land tenure by the community.

Portuguese tourism: How to share success?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draws on the main conclusions of an International Tourism Forum Round Table discussion, attended by representatives of the main entities of the tourism sector in Portugal as well as international travel and tourism specialists. The authors identify the importance of making travel and tourism growth sustainable and discuss how success approaches can be shared more widely. Design/methodology/approach The main conclusions resulting from the International Tourism Forum Round Table are presented and discussed. The event was organised by the Institute for Tourism Planning and Development (IPDT), with Sponsorship support from the Solverde Group, under the theme: “Tourism in 2018: How to Share Tourism Success”. Findings Participants in the International Tourism Forum Round Table concluded that the tourism industry worldwide and in Portugal in particular, is facing major challenges that calls for innovative ways of managing the tourist experience. Several questions regarding tourism have been discussed, including desertification in some inland cities and villages. Originality/value This paper provides knowledge about the current state of Portuguese tourism, its challenges and opportunities and identifies innovative ways and likely solutions for drawing tourists to other regions of the country – beyond the major cities.

Bearing Witness 2017: Year 2 of a Pacific climate change storytelling project

In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). This was followed up in 2017 in a second phase of what was hoped would become a five-year mission and expanded in future years to include other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. This project is timely, given the new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026 launched by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in March and the co-hosting by Fiji of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, during November. The students dispatched in 2017 on the ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific included a report about the relocation of a remote inland village of Tukuraki. They won the 2017 media and trauma prize of the Asia-Pacific Dart Centre, an agency affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism. This article is a case study assessing the progress with this second year of the journalism project and exploring the strategic initiatives under way for more nuanced and constructive Asia-Pacific media storytelling in response to climate change.

Metals in bones of the middle-aged inhabitants of Sardinia island (Italy) to assess nutrition and environmental exposure.

Metals in bones of 72 subjects lived between the twelfth and eighteenth century AC and collected in four Sardinian (Italian insular region) burial sites (Alghero, Bisarcio, Geridu, and Sassari) were determined and used as biomarkers to evaluate diet and potential social-environmental differences. Concentrations of Ba, Ca, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sr, and Zn were quantified in different types of compact bone (femur, fibula, humerus, radius, tibia, ulna) by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry previous acidic digestion and differences among the various burial sites, centuries, types of bone, gender, and age were explored by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results indicated differences between sites in terms of diet: Bisarcio (inland village) had increased ratios of Ba/Ca and Zn/Ca due to higher incidence of vegetables, cereals, and animal foods in the diet; Geridu (coastal village) showed increased Sr/Ca ratio indicating foods of plant and marine origin that were predominant; Alghero (coastal site) and Sassari (inland site) displayed prevalently a mixed diet reflecting a higher economy and food imports. In addition, these latter sites showed increased levels of Hg/Ca (fish, drugs, cosmetics) and Pb/Ca (coins, utensils, pipeline for water). In conclusion, the elemental Ba/Ca, Sr/Ca, and Zn/Ca ratios were indicative of provenance and diet, while Hg/Ca and Pb/Ca ratios were associated to various forms of environmental exposure.

农户对气候变化的感知与生计适应——基于中部与东部村庄的调查对比

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 农户对气候变化的感知与生计适应——基于中部与东部村庄的调查对比 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201608181683 作者: 作者单位: 福建师范大学,University of Michigan Ann Arbor,福建师范大学 地理科学学院,福建师范大学,福建师范大学,福建师范大学,福建师范大学 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 教育部人文社会科学资助项目（14YJCZH112）；教育部留学回国人员科研启动基金资助项目（教外司留[2014]1685号）；福建省科技厅公益类资助项目（K3-360）；中国清洁发展机制基金赠款资助项目（2014009）；福建省教育厅科技资助项目（JK2014007） Rural household perceptions and adaptations to climate change based on an investigation and comparison of two middle and eastern villages in China Author: Affiliation: School of Geographical Sciences,Fujian Normal University,College of Literature,Science and the Arts,University of Michigan Ann Arbor,MI,USA,-,,School of Geographical Sciences,Fujian Normal University,School of Geographical Sciences,Fujian Normal University,School of Geographical Sciences,Fujian Normal University,School of Geographical Sciences,Fujian Normal University Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:相对于城市居民，气候变化对农户的影响更为直接与强烈，而农户对气候变化的感知是其采取适应策略的重要前提。目前，相关领域的宏观研究成果比较丰富，以家庭为单位的典型调查分析相对缺乏，基于不同地域农户对比的微观实证研究则更未见于报道。选择中部内陆河南省与东部沿海福建省典型农区的一个村庄作为研究样地，采用参与式农村评估法（Participatory Rural Appraisal，PRA），基于中部和东部村庄144份与153份有效问卷数据，从家庭尺度探讨内陆与沿海农户对气候变化及其影响的感知与生计适应的结构性差异。结果显示：农户对气温与降水的变化感知直接且强烈，能较一致地回顾气候变暖的强度与时期，中部农户对降水变化的感知度较强；接近一半的农户将气候变暖归因于人类因素，至于人类活动内容（如工业排放、汽车增加、个人与家庭、农业污染、农村建设等）对气候变化变暖影响的认知，中部与东部农户则存在显著性差异；农户对气候变化影响的感知不如预期深刻；农户对气候变化的生计适应趋于多样化，包括外出打工、改变种植方式、修建基础设施与多样化经营等。 Abstract:The negative impact of climate change on rural householders is more direct and stronger than the effect on their counterparts in urban area, and their perception of climate change is an important prerequisite for adaptation strategies. There have been many related research studies on this subject, but very few have undertaken a typical household investigation. Furthermore, a micro empirical study based on a comparative study of rural households in different areas has not been reported. Two villages in a typical agricultural area in the inland central area of Henan Province and the eastern coastal area of Fujian Province were selected. The participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method was used, and 144 and 153 valid questionnaires were completed by central and eastern households, respectively. The structural differences in the perception of climate change and its impact, and their livelihood adaptations, are explored from the perspective of the household. The results showed that farmer perceptions of temperature and precipitation variation were direct and robust, and they had similarly strong views on the strength and the period of climate warming. However, inland farmers' perceptions were more sensitive to precipitation to some extent, and nearly half of the households attributed warming to human factors. The perceptions of human activities, such as industrial emissions, car increases, personal and family consumption, agricultural pollution, and rural construction, etc., were significantly different between inland and coastal villages. Overall, household perceptions were lower than expected; and the livelihood adaptation strategies were diverse. These included becoming migrant workers, changing cropping patterns, constructing infrastructure, and diversifying management, etc. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

What does it take to be heard in managing marine protected areas? Insights from Tanzania coastal communities

This paper explores the debate on participatory approach by presenting evidence from the local communities practices living within the marine protected area in Tanzania (Mnazi Bay Ruvuma-Estuary Marine Park). Five out of fifteen villages that exist in Mnazi Bay Marine Park were selected for this study after consultation with the park authority. Stratified sampling of villages was conducted based on the location from the Indian Ocean: three villages located close to the sea (sea front villages) and two villages located far from the sea (inland villages). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, participant observation and interviews. The findings are presented using the local community narratives on livelihoods strategies and participation in decision-making processes to highlight the challenges of a participatory conservation approach in marine resources management within MPAs and also using regression analysis to explain the factors determining their participation. A Logit regression model is run. Results show that participatory approach in MPAs is a challenging phenomenon due to existence of multifaceted layers in marine resources management and use. These layers exist in terms of power struggle to manage resources and extract benefits associated with marine resources between state and local communities. This power struggle tends to undermine the ability of local communities to use and manage marine resources, threatening the attainment of the main objective of establishing the MPAs that’s improving the livelihood of the adjacent communities and improving the resources. Keywords: participatory approach, local communities, marine protected areas, fisheries management, marine resources governance, livelihood strategies

“In th’Immensity of Nature Lost!”: Vision, Nature, and the Metaphysical in the Landscape of Richard Lewis’s “A Journey from Patapsco to Annapolis”

The journey of spring day, along banks of Patapsco River and traversing colonial Maryland from an inland village to coastal capital of Annapolis, forms subject of once forgotten but recently revived poem by Richard Lewis (1700?-33?). A Journey from Patapsco to Annapolis (1731) records depiction of New World's landscape by haggard language teacher, part-time colonial government functionary, Enlightenment-era amateur scientist, and Pedagogue of Art, (1) depiction that records nature of region and its inhabitants using aesthetic, pastoral, scientific, and spiritual discourses. The poem exhibits delightful attention to and appreciation of natural detail as well as surprising moments in which aspects of are repressed and ignored. Lewis, himself an immigrant who faced challenges of holding liminal class position in raucous social world of colonial Maryland, creates narrator who seeks identification within natural but who also wishes to read nature as text for scientific analysis and spiritual edification. Among those forces that shape poem are keen attention to aesthetics and concern for intersections between beauty and bounty. Yet in order to create work in which humans seemingly exist harmoniously with nature, poet must willfully excise grating elements from landscape, gesture that haunts narrator when he considers that which is beyond nature, an all-powerful deity who could as easily excise him from universe. The poem's two primary emphases--description of material nature and representation of spiritual crisis--have been basis of scholarly division in earlier criticism of poem. While most critics have selected one of those two aspects for examination, positioning other as secondary (Carlson 307; Johnson 117; Beyers, Augustan 209-12), we see Lewis as poet who purposefully juxtaposes earthly and heavenly themes. Lewis's epigraph, taken from Virgil's Georgies, suggests complex intertwining of natural and spiritual: Give me ways of wandering stars to know, / The depths of heaven above, and earth below. (2) Lewis's quest traverses material environment, while apprehending its metaphorical applications and its metaphysical implications. He brings to bear discourses of science, religion, and art as he examines nature, divinity, and ultimately himself. We assert that Lewis's poem requires careful attention to both materiality and spirituality, as well as to what is seen and unseen more generally in poem; therefore, our reading combines an ecocritical emphasis on materiality with an ecothoeological recognition of metaphysicality. LEWIS'S JOURNEY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY ECOCRITICAL LANDSCAPE Viewing Lewis's poem through an ecocritical lens reveals poet's struggle to envision and articulate his own position within nature he seeks to represent. Robert Kern identifies range of modes by which texts depict nature. He sees some literature as anthropocentric, blind to the possibility that nature might validly pursue its own goals and intentions, without need of human ... 'improvement' (267). At times, Lewis's poem seems blind in this way, performing work of an imperial gaze in sweeping appropriation of everything it sees. In contrast, ecocentric poem, Kern asserts, must be displaced, taken precedence over, virtually and grammatically, by what lies outside (272). Lewis's narrator engages in self-displacement while centering attention on more-than-human world, though identity and resource politics complicate this displacement; still, narrator's vision often exhibits an ecosensitivity that registers poem on ecocentric end of Kern's scale, since poem expresses a sort of neighborly solicitude for [the] more-than-human inhabitants of [the] local environment (Kern 273). Lewis and his narrator invoke series of contrasting methodologies to situate his poem. …

Selected Poems of Zheng Xiaoqiong

97 Translation translated by Zhou Xiaojing Selected Poems of Zheng Xiaoqiong 6 Age of Industry Japanese machines in American-invested factories carry iron produced in Brazilian mines; lathe tools from Germany reshape the coastal lines of France; store shelves in South Korea are filled with Italian labels Belgium is waiting in the corner to be sold; Spain and Singapore are being inspected; Russia has been put into the warehouse by transporters; Africa is standing in the open-air square as natural resources; orders from Chile are narrow & long like its territory; my Sichuan dialect is pretty old-fashioned; Xiangxi dialect is harder to understand; Minnan dialect from Fujian is chattingwith Taiwanese Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong is only a half-way station; if I’m willing I could arrange India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the vicinity of Australia, put Iraq and USA side by side move Israel to the middle of the Caribbean make England and Argentina shake hands, Japan and Mexico... In this industrial age, I am keeping busy every day for the sake of peacefully arranging the world in a factory. 98 Translation 6 A Female Migrant Worker: Youth Confined in a Seat on the Assembly Line Time opens its gigantic mouth, the moon rusting on the machine is haggard, hazy, opaque. The ominous danger in her heart surges like a turbulent river, the cliffs of her body collapse, dirt and gravel— tattered pieces of time—fill up the ferocious river of the female body. Confused tides no longer fluctuate according to season. She sits in her seat on the assembly line as moving products interweave with time, devouring her. So fast has she aged, ten years flown by like running water...immense fatigue drifts in her mind....For so many years she’s been keeping company these screws: one two turn left right, fixing her dreams and youth on a product, as she watches her pale girlhood running from an inland village to a coastal factory, all the way to a store shelf in the USA. Exhaustion and industrial disease accumulate in her lungs, stuck in her throat, her menstruation no longer regular, her coughing convulsive. In the development zone not far from the factory green lychee trees are felled, the machines by her side tremble....She rubs her red swollen eyes and places herself between the moving products on the assembly line. 6 Midnight, Rain At midnight rain falls along insomniac iron cages, like a flock of egrets with fluffy feathers, showering down moans on one hundred machines. Rain at midnight is sleepless, it pitter-patters by the machines, falling like nails, lumps, and strings stamped with labels—yellow ones from the USA, green ones from France gray from Japan, light blue from Italy...intertwined, overlapping with me, a migrant worker from Sichuan, gazing outside in reminiscence. Rain at midnight has a name like mine: wanderer, its water lines up with equal distance, whispering blueprints, computers, spare parts, iron nails Translation 99 silent like a youthful mute. Midnight rain falls on hands, legs, faces homesickness, sleepiness...falling, sharp like the teeth of the time-card clock with an iron stomach, devouring countless love, youth, and hours. Its rainbow color is a noun, looking for a home. Rainwater is moving in my blood, it’s a stranger-lodger, flown over from a dreamland in the deep night. I must stretch out my hands to hold it, hold it and my vulnerability sleep talk, faraway gaze; our late night in a strange country has the same moist blossoming childhood, the same silence like dark iron. Midnight rain and I stare at each other with deep feelings, our conversation, only I can hear. 6 Screaming Earthworms The fictitious world displays another layer of background to us, I move deep into dirt My smooth body, like a mirror of the world, lithe and fragile, pushing toward The depth of the city to put down roots. Buildings of the masculine metropolis glitter in my face Their glass walls covered with ads of female flesh. Erotic desire’s winter nursery is shockingly green The mask of the city cultivates in occluded arteries of me, a dormant earthworm at the bottom of society It has...

Space to maneuver: collective strategies of indigenous villagers in the urbanizing region of northwestern China

The national project of opening up Western China has led to urban sprawl in China’s inland areas. However, limited attention has been paid to the localization of urbanization in Northwestern China, or the means by which villagers express their indigenous economic power by contesting spatial forms of development. This study builds on research on local collectivism to investigate strategies used by grassroots collectives to reconstruct the spatially bounded economic power of indigenous residents and create space to maneuver in the new urban landscape. Among these strategies are self-development projects, such as the construction of community housing and agricultural greenhouses. These spatial strategies are not only shaped by the distinctive policy and market environment of Northwestern China, but they vary within the region. This study investigates two inland villages in the outskirts of Yinchuan. At the time of the study, one of the villages had been absorbed into the urban area, and the other was farther away from the urban center and thus less affected by land development and urban sprawl. The findings suggest that the collective strategies implemented in villages in Northwestern China in response to land development vary with the strength of grassroots leadership, the desirability of the place, and the composition of incoming residents.

Part Time Farming and Diversification in the Scale of Farming in Chinese Inland Villages : A Study of Village Z, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Part Time Farming and Diversification in the Scale of Farming in Chinese Inland Villages : A Study of Village Z, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province

Familial transmission of human longevity: a population-based study in an inland village of Sardinia (Italy), 1850–2010

This study investigates the role of familial transmission on individual survival in an inland community of Sardinia that stands for the exceptional longevity of its inhabitants. The analysis considers the complete survival trajectories of individuals born in the village of Villagrande Strisaili from unions in the period from 1850 to 1910 and aims to estimate the possible effect on the relationships parent–offspring and between siblings. Our results show that the frail familial component of the population, rather than the robust one, proves to be a good predictor of individual survival. No association between father survival and that of children was found. Having instead a long-living mother increases lifespan, especially for daughters. But the strongest relationship is that observed between siblings. The survival of siblings is positively associated with individual survival and this relationship is particularly strong for males. This finding points for both genetic and environment influence, and particularly of early-life conditions, on longevity.

'Taking the Waters'

In late 1907, Charles Fraser, the Victorian government entomologist, travelled to North Queensland. His observations of the flora and fauna in this part of Australia were later published in the Victorian Naturalist. However, this journey was not motivated entirely by his desire to study natural history. As a sufferer of ‘rhematic [sic] troubles’, he spent a few days soaking in the mineral-impregnated waters at Innot Hot Springs, a small inland village approximately 150 kilometres south-east of Cairns. First established in the late 1880s, the tiny settlement is still visited during the winter months by many ‘grey nomads’ en route to Karumba, where the fishing is promoted as being excellent. They break their journey at Innot Hot Springs to soak in the indoor or outdoor swimming pools filled with mineralised water of varying temperatures sourced from the nearby Nettle Creek. Some view it simply as a place to relax after the long journey from southern Australia, having perhaps already tried the artesian bore water baths at Moree and Mitchell en route. Others may consider the mineral waters to have healing qualities; like Charles Fraser, they are literally ‘taking the waters’.

Journey by Bottle: Uncovering the Allure of Guyanese Cassareep

Since before the arrival of Europeans in South America, the Amerindians of Guyana have been boiling down the poisonous juice of cassava to make cassareep, a safe, flavorful sauce for meats and stews. Cassareep is used to flavor pepperpot, Guyana's national dish of slow-cooked meat, whose popularity has spread from the country's Amerindian communities to the Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese communities. To uncover the origins of cassareep, the author visits an inland village of Makushi Amerindians, where the sauce is still made by hand in the traditional way. First, the cook packs shredded cassava solids into a matapee, a cylindrical basket that is squeezed to extract the juice. The juice is then boiled to destroy the cyanide, and spices such as cinnamon and habanero peppers are added. Because small artisan operations do not produce enough cassareep to satisfy the current demand of the Guyanese at home and abroad, the author tours a bottling plant near the capital to observe how cassareep is produced on a commercial scale and discovers appliances and machinery custom-made for Guyana's temperamental power grid.

Post-Cyclone Sidr nutritional status of women and children in coastal Bangladesh: an empirical study

Cyclone Sidr, a Category 4 storm, struck the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on November 15, 2007, causing 3,406 deaths, 2.51 million acres of crop damage, and aggregated damage of US$1.7 billion. It significantly damaged household food availability and increased post-cyclone nutritional insecurity. This study assesses the nutritional status of household and explores influences of various socioeconomic variables on nutritional security. More specifically, it explores the impact of the cyclone on short-term nutritional status of women of reproductive age and children under 5 years. For this study, 331 households living in three villages devastated by Cyclone Sidr were selected. The nutritional status of women of reproductive age was measured based on body mass index, and that of children aged 6–59 months was measured based on weight-for-height (wasting), height-for-age (stunting), and weight-for-age (underweight). This study found that the nutritional status, along with other household characteristics, of the study groups was not remarkably different across the three selected villages. Findings of this study further suggest that the nutritional security situation was not much changed in the post-cyclone period compared with the pre-cyclone period primarily because of rapid and effective distribution of essential food items among cyclone survivors by the government of Bangladesh along with donor and other organizations. However, nutritional insecurity was more prevalent in the island village relative to inland and coastline villages. Similarly, fishermen were found to be the most vulnerable to nutritional insecurity in the post-cyclone period. Several recommendations are made to improve food aid distribution in the aftermath of a cyclone.

Height and Survival at Older Ages among Men Born in an Inland Village in Sardinia (Italy), 1866–2006

This study investigated the relationship between individual height and survival at older ages among conscripts born between 1866 and 1915 in an inland village of Sardinia, Italy. Individual age at death was related to military height measurement at age 20. Differential longevity of conscripts at older ages was investigated through the comparison of age-specific mortality rates and life expectancy estimates. Results indicated that short conscripts (<161.1 cm) generally had higher survival rates than their tall peers (≥161.1 cm). At 70 years of age, tall peers were expected to live two years less than short conscripts. Biological mechanisms were examined in relation to the greater longevity of shorter people.

Changes in vector species composition and current vector biology and behaviour will favour malaria elimination in Santa Isabel Province, Solomon Islands.

BackgroundIn 2009, Santa Isabel Province in the Solomon Islands embarked on a malaria elimination programme. However, very little is known in the Province about the anopheline fauna, which species are vectors, their bionomics and how they may respond to intensified intervention measures. The purpose of this study was to provide baseline data on the malaria vectors and to ascertain the possibility of successfully eliminating malaria using the existing conventional vector control measures, such as indoor residual spraying (IRS) and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN).MethodsEntomological surveys were undertaken during October 2009. To determine species composition and distribution larval surveys were conducted across on the whole island. For malaria transmission studies, adult anophelines were sampled using human landing catches from two villages - one coastal and one inland.ResultsFive Anopheles species were found on Santa Isabel: Anopheles farauti, Anopheles hinesorum, Anopheles lungae, Anopheles solomonis, and Anopheles nataliae. Anopheles hinesorum was the most widespread species. Anopheles farauti was abundant, but found only on the coast. Anopheles punctulatus and Anopheles koliensis were not found. Anopheles farauti was the only species found biting in the coastal village, it was incriminated as a vector in this study; it fed early in the night but equally so indoors and outdoors, and had a low survival rate. Anopheles solomonis was the main species biting humans in the inland village, it was extremely exophagic, with low survival rates, and readily fed on pigs.ConclusionThe disappearance of the two major vectors, An. punctulatus and An. koliensis, from Santa Isabel and the predominance of An. hinesorum, a non-vector species may facilitate malaria elimination measures. Anopheles farauti was identified as the main coastal vector with An. solomonis as a possible inland vector. The behaviour of An. solomonis is novel as it has not been previously found biting humans in any numbers. Both species appear to be short-lived, a characteristic that will limit their transmission potential. The early night feeding behaviour and a degree of outdoor biting seen in An. farauti and particularly in An. solomonis will require that their response to IRS and LLIN be closely monitored. In coastal villages, where large, favourable breeding sites allow for high numbers of An. farauti may require the addition of larval control to achieve elimination.

The very high sex ratio in rural China: Impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of unmarried men

China has the highest male to female sex ratio at birth (SRB) in the world, with levels highest in poor rural areas. Rural-to-urban migration also occurs on a huge scale, but household registration regulations prevent rural-dwellers from settling permanently in cities. However, urban registration can be acquired through marriage and many rural females now acquire urban residence through this route. The purpose of this study was to examine areas where there is a high degree of rural–urban migration and a pronounced imbalance in the sex ratio of the population in the reproductive age groups and to explore the effects of this situation on the psychosocial wellbeing of older unmarried men in rural Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces in China. The study drew on two sources of data: (1) routine demographic data from 36 villages, and (2) in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews with 45 unmarried men aged over 30. Our results show high levels of rural–urban migration leaving inland villages depleted of young people, especially women. There is a strong gradient across the age range in the ratio of unmarried males to females in all the villages from a ratio of 1.9 in the 20–24 age group, to a ratio of 75.0 in the 35–39 age group. Interviews with the unmarried men showed they blamed their failure to marry on poverty and the ease with which local women can marry-up to urbanites. Most felt a profound sense of failure describing themselves variously as: aimless, hopeless, miserable, sad, angry and lonely. While the SRB has recently fallen slightly in China, the problem of the gender imbalance is likely to continue for at least a generation, since the SRB has been very high in parts of rural China for 20 years, and women will continue to migrate away from rural areas in far larger numbers than men.

Schistosomiasis in Lake Malaŵi Villages

Historically, open shorelines of Lake Malaŵi were free from schistosome, Schistosoma haematobium, transmission, but this changed in the mid-1980s, possibly as a result of over-fishing reducing density of molluscivore fishes. Very little information is available on schistosome infections among people in lake-shore communities and therefore we decided to summarise data collected from 1998 to 2007. Detailed knowledge of the transmission patterns is essential to design a holistic approach to schistosomiasis control involving the public health, fisheries and tourism sectors. On Nankumba Peninsula, in the southern part of the lake, inhabitants of villages located along the shores of Lake Malaŵi have higher prevalence of S. haematobium infection than those living in inland villages. Overall prevalence (all age classes combined) of urinary schistosomiasis in 1998/1999 ranged from 10.2% to 26.4% in inland villages and from 21.0% to 72.7% in lakeshore villages; for school children prevalence of infection ranged from 15.3% to 57.1% in inland schools and from 56.2% to 94.0% in lakeshore schools. Inhabitants on the islands, Chizumulu and Likoma, also have lower prevalence of infection than those living in lakeshore villages on Nankumba Peninsula. This increased prevalence in lakeshore villages is not necessarily linked to transmission taking place in the lake itself, but could also be due to the presence of more numerous typical inland transmission sites (e.g., streams, ponds) being close to the lake. Temporal data witness of intense transmission in some lakeshore villages with 30-40% of children cleared from infection becoming reinfected 12 months later (also lakeshore village). The level of S. mansoni infection is low in the lakeshore communities. Findings are discussed in relation to fishing in the lake.