Screening for Neonatal Jaundice by Smartphone Sclera Imaging

Jaundice is observed in over 60% of neonates and must be carefully monitored. Ifsevere cases go unnoticed, death or permanent disability can result. Neonatal jaun-dice causes 100,000 deaths yearly, with low-income countries in Africa and SouthAsia particularly affected. There is an unmet need for an accessible and objectivescreening method. This thesis proposes a smartphone camera-based method forscreening based on quantification of yellow discolouration in the sclera.The primary aim is to develop and test an app to screen for neonatal jaundicethat requires only the smartphone itself. To this end, a novel ambient subtractionmethod is proposed and validated, with less dependence on external hardware orcolour cards than previous app-based methods. Another aim is to investigate thebenefits of screening via the sclera. An existing dataset of newborn sclera images(n=87) is used to show that sclera chromaticity can predict jaundice severity.The neoSCB app is developed to predict total serum bilirubin (TSB) fromambient-subtracted sclera chromaticity via a flash/ no-flash image pair. A studyis conducted in Accra, Ghana to evaluate the app. With 847 capture sessions, thisis the largest study on image-based jaundice detection to date. A model trained onsclera chromaticity is found to be more accurate than one based on skin. The modelis validated on an independent dataset collected at UCLH (n=38).The neoSCB app has a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 76% in iden-tifying neonates with TSB≥250μmol/L (n=179). This is equivalent to the TcB(JM-105) data collected concurrently, and as good as the best-performing app in theliterature (BiliCam). Following a one-time calibration, neoSCB works without spe-cialist equipment, which could help widen access to effective jaundice screening

TAMAA case study report: Wellbeing of African villagers within their community empowered by sustainable new energy

The TAMAA (Hope) Case study inquired with the in-depth interviews, how to build a sustainable flourishing learning village community even though the poverty is widespread, agriculture practices are ineffective without irrigation systems, and lack of energy prevents to make the most of the African enormous resources. George Pindua, one of the interviewees expressed: ‘The basic needs of people in Africa include food, shelter, clean water, electricity, education, hospital and infrastructure’. Therefore, this case of African villagers' wellbeing explored the insights, knowledge, experiences, and visions of people involved in development co-operation works for years, giving voice to these professionals who have worked within people in the developing countries and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the goal was to identify change levers, which foster the society to satisfy rural Africans' basic needs and broaden these needs to business opportunities. The research strategy was the case study research with in-depth face-to-face interviews. The TAMAA research first assessed the general basic customer needs as education, food, water, sanitation, health, lighting, cooking, income, safe and sustainable environment, electricity, and general market opportunities. Then, the face- to-face interviews revealed that the most weighted needs, which contribute to wellbeing, were Clean Water, Nutritious Food, Lifelong Health, Education at all levels, Safe and Healthy Lighting, Agricultural Productivity, Jobs, opportunities for Micro to medium-sized businesses and Electricity as well as clean cooking. The interviews were complemented by reference interviews and cases. New sustainable services were discovered and assessed: Safe and Healthy Lighting, Clean Water, and Drip Irrigation to Food Markets, which have capabilities to produce these identified needs. These services were based on solar technologies and they integrated human needs, energy services, and technology to socio-technical systems. Clean Water decreases water-based diseases and, together with Drip Irrigation, enables a prolific agriculture with versatile crops, increases yields and ensures safe access to Nutritious Food. Equally important, Drip Irrigation generates Micro to medium-sized businesses and offers village-farmers opportunities to sell diverse products to local markets. The service, Safe and Healthy Lighting, reduces the serious indoor air problems due to the use of traditional kerosene lamps. In addition, this Lighting service makes Education, Jobs, and Micro to medium-sized businesses possible in the evening. Lighting is based on the LED lights and solar panels, which are considered stable technologies, and this service provides a safe and healthy environment for schools, hospitals, and other buildings. The findings of this TAMAA Case suggest further research and pilot projects, which can implement these new energy services as concepts and broaden them to the exports in potential food markets.TAMAA (Hope) tapaustutkimus selvittää, kuinka voidaan rakentaa kestävän kehityksen mukainen kukoistava oppiva kyläyhteisö, vaikka köyhyys on laajalle levinnyt, maatalouden käytännöt ovat tehottomia eikä kastelujärjestelmiä ole, sekä energian puute estää hyödyntämästä laajasti Afrikan valtavia voimavaroja. Kuten George Pindua ilmaisee: "Afrikkalaisten perustarpeet ovat ruoka, suoja, puhdas vesi, sähkö, koulutus, sairaala ja infrastruktuuri". Siksi tutkimus kyläläisten hyvinvoinnista tarkastelee ihmisten ajatuksenjuoksuja, tietoja, kokemuksia, ja näkemyksiä, joita pitkäaikaisissa kehitysyhteistöissä mukana olleet voivat tarjota. Lisäksi arvioidaan muutoskeinoja, jotka edistävät yhteisöä tyydyttämään afrikkalaisten perustarpeet maaseudulla ja auttavat laajentamaan liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Tutkimusstrategia oli tapaustutkimus ja syvälliset kasvokkain tapahtuvat haastattelut. TAMAA-tutkimus määritteli ensin yleiset asiakkaan perustarpeet kuten koulutuksen, ruoan, veden, sanitaation, terveyden, valon, keittämisen, ansiot, turvallisen elinympäristön ja kestävän kehityksen ja sähkön sekä yleiset markkinamahdollisuudet. Kasvokkain tapahtuneet haastattelut paljastivat, että Puhdas Vesi, Ravitseva Ruoka, Elinaikainen Terveys, Koulutus kaikilla tasoilla, Turvallinen ja terveellinen Valo, Tuottoisa Maatalous, Työpaikat, mahdollisuudet mikroliiketoiminnasta keskikoiseen liiketoimintaan, sekä puhdas keittäminen, muodostavat tärkeimmät hyvinvointia edistävät tarpeet. Haastatteluja täydennettiin referenssihaastatteluilla ja -tutkimuksilla. Uudet kestävät palvelut, Turvallinen Valo, Puhdas Vesi ja Tihkukastelu Ruokamarkkinoita varten, mahdollistivat tuottamaan ruokaa, vettä, terveyttä, koulutusta, työtä, tehokasta maataloutta, luomaan pientä ja keskikokoista yrittäjyyttä sekä viilentämään maapallon ilmaston lämpenemistä. Nämä aurinkoteknologiaan perustuvat palvelut muodostavat sosio-teknisiä järjestelmiä, jossa ihmisten tarpeet yhdistyvät palveluteknologioihin. Puhdas Vesi vähentää sairauksia, mutta Tihkukastelu Ruokamarkkinoita varten Puhtaan Veden kanssa mahdollistaa tuottoisan maatalouden ja monipuoliset kasvit ja enentyvät sadot, siten luoden edellytyksiä Ravitsevaan Ruokaan. Myös on tärkeää, että tämä palvelu synnyttää yrittäjyyttä mikrotasolta keskisuuriin siten, että kylämaanviljelijät voivat myydä monipuolisia tuotteita paikallisille markkinoille. Turvallinen ja Terveellinen Valo vähentää vakavia sisäilma ongelmia, jotka aiheutuvat perinteisen kerosiinin käytöstä sekä tukee opiskelua, työskentelyä ja yrittäjyyttä myös pimeänä aikana. Tämä palvelu, Valo, perustuu LED-valaistukseen ja aurinkopaneeleihin, joita pidetään vakaina teknologioina, ja Valo antaa turvallisen ja terveellisen ympäristön kouluihin, sairaaloihin, työpaikoille, ja muihin rakennuksiin. Seuraavaksi suositellaan tutkimuksen laajentamista ja pilotteja, jotka voivat implementoida nämä uudet palvelut konsepteina sekä soveltaa niitä pontentiaalisille ruoka vientimarkkinoille.

Energy Access in an Era of Low Carbon Transitions: Politicising Energy for Development Projects in India

This thesis examines the role of low carbon energy projects in widening energy access, progressing energy transitions and furthering development goals in rural India. Currently in development contexts, energy access and transitions are mobilised through micro energy projects like solar lanterns and micro-grids. The successes and failures of these projects are primarily assessed quantitatively – number of villages covered, number of households connected etc. However, this approach fails to understand how energy transitions projects perform in people’s everyday lives. It does not capture the reasons why they work for particular groups of people and not for others. To go beyond the quantitative understanding, this thesisfocuses on the micro-politics of everyday life that shape the effects energy transitions projects have on different groups of people. Itconsiders how power, politics and culture are vital for understanding the successes and failures of these projects. Theoretically the thesis conceives low carbon projects as low carbon assemblages to understand their fluid and contingent nature and the ways in which they are configured and reconfigured through relationships of power and everyday politics. Engaging with governmentality studies, it further considers how different, pre-existing and newly configured relationships of power conduct people’s conducts and sometimes lead to resistances for low carbon projects. The thesis critically examines three crucial aspects of low carbon energy projects by engaging with three key ideas – trusteeship, significances and resistances. Firstly, it explores how, by positioning themselves as trustees, particular actors seek to assemble and govern low carbon projects in order to achieve specific outcomes. Secondly, it investigates how, by focusing on particular significances of electricity, these interventions work to achieve particular development goals in different spaces of everyday life. Finally, it asks how and why different pressures and contestations emerge as everyday resistances in low carbon transitions. The thesis takes an ethnographic route of enquiry in order to examine energy in everyday life, using participant observations, interviews and photography. It explores two different low carbon projects – Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) solar lanterns project and Husk Power Systems (HPS) biomass micro-grids project – and contrasts them against the central grid and kerosene oil networks, in five villages in Bihar. Three key arguments emerge from the thesis. Firstly, electricity access should be understood as a spatially heterogeneous and temporally fluid idea. Its firm quantification and standardisation are problematic because electricity access is geographically and socially differentiated.It needs to be explored in an ethnographic manner, in which not onlyquestions of ‘how much’ but also of who, how and where are critical. Secondly, in energy and development projects, context matters. The society, culture, politics and economy of spaces in which projects are implemented mediate their impacts. Finally, the upkeep and maintenance of low carbon energy projects is not just about economies and supply chains of spare parts but also about cooperation and coordination between the project designers and users.Being able to fulfil people’s changing electricity requirements by building flexibility in the projects is critical to respond to these three issues. This will make projects more sustainable and increase people’s trust on low carbon projects leading to a convergence between energy access and energy transitions

Guidebook on Detection Technologies and Systems for Humanitarian Demining

The aim of this publication is to provide the mine action community, and those supporting mine action, with a consolidated review and status summary of detection technologies that could be applied to humanitarian demining operations. This Guidebook is meant to provide information to a wide variety of readers. For those not familiar with the spectrum of technologies being considered for the detection of landmines and for area reduction, there is a brief overview of the principle of operation for each technology as well as a summary listing of the strengths, limitations, and potential for use of the technology to humanitarian demining. For those with an intermediate level of understanding for detection technologies, there is information regarding some of the more technical details of the system to give an expanded overview of the principles involved and hardware development that has taken place. Where possible, technical specifications for the systems are provided. For those requiring more information for a particular system, relevant publications lists and contact information are also provided

A Multi-Stakeholder Information Model to Drive Process Connectivity In Smart Buildings

Smart buildings utilise IoT technology to provide stakeholders with efficient, comfortable, and secure experiences. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the technical aspects of it and how it can address specific stakeholder requirements. This study adopts socio-technical theory principles to propose a model that addresses stakeholders' needs by considering the interrelationship between social and technical subsystems. A systematic literature review and thematic analysis of 43 IoT conceptual frameworks for smart building studies informed the design of a comprehensive conceptual model and IoT framework for smart buildings. The study's findings suggest that addressing stakeholder requirements is essential for developing an information model in smart buildings. A multi-stakeholder information model integrating multiple stakeholders' perspectives enhances information sharing and improves process connectivity between various systems and subsystems. The socio-technical systems framework emphasises the importance of considering technical and social aspects while integrating smart building systems for seamless operation and effectiveness. The study's findings have significant implications for enhancing stakeholders' experience and improving operational efficiency in commercial buildings. The insights from the study can inform smart building systems design to consider all stakeholder requirements holistically, promoting process connectivity in smart buildings. The literature analysis contributed to developing a comprehensive IoT framework, addressing the need for holistic thinking when proposing IoT frameworks for smart buildings by considering different stakeholders in the building

Climate Change Adaptation Benefits of Decentralised Renewable Energy Technologies in the Nepali Mountains

Nepal is a poor mountainous country with low levels of energy access and high vulnerability to climate change. Difficult geographic terrain, scattered settlements and the lack of physical infrastructure in the Nepali mountains exacerbate challenges in building modern energy infrastructure on the one hand and increase vulnerability on the other. Decentralised Renewable Energy Technologies (DRETs) have the potential to play roles in addressing both the issues of modern energy access and climate change adaptation. However, Nepal’s renewable energy policy is solely guided by the goals of energy access and largely overlooks the climate adaptation potential of renewable energy technologies. In this context, this study examines the climate change adaptation benefits of DRETs in rural mountains of Nepal. The study applies a geographical approach and draws from both social and natural science methodologies to explain local social, technological and environmental interrelationships. The sustainable livelihood approach is integrated with ideas on broadening livelihood resilience to examine the suitability of DRETs as an effective tool for climate change adaptation. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative primary data collected through a questionnaire survey of 331 households, 9 focus group discussions and 20 expert interviews to meet the study objectives. Case studies are drawn from three remote villages in the mountains of Nepal and their application of five commonly used DRETs, namely solar photovoltaics, solar-wind micro-grid, micro-hydro, improved cooking stoves and biogas. The communities in the study sites are experiencing significant climate change. Increasing temperatures, increasing variability in monsoon onset and withdrawal, decline in water availability, increases in insect pests and invasive species, changes in flowering, fruiting and relocation of species, and changes in the frequency of natural hazards were identified as major environmental changes observed in the case study areas. Those environmental changes have a broad range of impacts on local lifestyles, production systems and livelihoods. Local communities are not effectively equipped to deal with such changes, reflecting generally poor adaptive capacities and high levels of vulnerability. DRETs are contributing to reduced climate vulnerability by directly confronting climate risks and by improving socio-economic factors of vulnerability in the case study areas. For example direct adaptation support is offered by solar PV through the operation of early warning system to minimise losses to disasters, by solar-wind micro grid through the powering of electric fans and fridges to manage higher temperatures, and by micro-hydro projects through irrigation to address an increasingly erratic monsoon. DRETs also contribute to improving economic productivity, education and health services, social trust and forest resources in the study areas, which help to strengthen local capacities to adapt to the observed environmental changes. The findings of this study demonstrate that development activities can significantly contribute to climate change adaptation while simultaneously achieving socio-economic improvements. This research advances the concept of sustainable development by highlighting the need to mainstream development with responses to climate change, and demonstrating that DRETs are an effective tool to do so.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 202