Various forms of double burden of malnutrition problems exist in rural Kenya

Background: The coexistence of overweight/obesity and undernutrition is often referred to as the double burden of malnutrition (DB). DB was shown to exist in many developing countries, especially in urban areas. Much less is known about DB in rural areas of developing countries. Also, the exact definition of DB varies between studies, making comparison difficult. The objective of this study is to analyse DB problems in rural Kenya, using and comparing different DB definitions and measurement approaches. Methods: Food intake and anthropometric data were collected from 874 male and female adults and 184 children (<5 years) through a cross-section survey in rural areas of Western Kenya. DB at the individual level is defined as a person suffering simultaneously from overweight/obesity and micronutrient deficiency or stunting. DB at the household level is defined as an overweight/obese adult and an undernourished child living in the same household, using underweight, stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiency as indicators of child undernutrition. Results: DB at the individual level is found in 19% of the adults, but only in 1% of the children. DB at the household level is relatively low (1–3%) when using wasting or underweight as indicators of child undernutrition, but much higher (13–17%) when using stunting or micronutrient deficiency as indicators. Conclusion: Various forms of DB problems exist in rural Kenya at household and individual levels. Prevalence rates depend on how exactly DB is defined and measured. The rise of overweight and obesity, even in rural areas, and their coexistence with different forms of undernutrition are challenges for food and nutrition policies

Research on vulnerability to poverty : a village case study from Thailand

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Provisioning of docker containers with TOSCA

In order to master the administration and automation problem of distributed applications in the cloud age, topology & orchestration platforms have been established in the past few years. Application topologies and their entire lifecycles can easily be modeled and later on be deployed on various cloud environments. Standards like the Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) help to keep the description of applications platform independent and increase interoperability between components. Another recent paradigm in Cloud Computing is containerized virtualization. The particular and significant popularity of Docker containers was mainly driven by the needs of having less dependencies when moving from development to production environments. The technology around Docker container still evolves very fast and projects to provision and manage Docker container in a automated way have already been adopted by major Cloud providers (e.g. Amazon ECS, Azure Container Service, Google Container Engine), but lack in topology & orchestration platforms like Cloudify or OpenTOSCA. The cloud provider offerings use container cluster technologies like Apache Mesos or kubernetes under the hood, as the lifecycle management of containers is a complicated task. Container cluster technologies provide an easy way to automatically scale, deploy and manage multiple Docker container on various infrastructures. This thesis aims to enable the support for the deployment of clustered Docker containers using a TOSCA compliant topology & orchestration language and execution environment. More specifically, the Cloudify environment is used as the basis to enable the modeling and deployment of container clusters hosted on kubernetes. By the usage of the Cloudify platform the interoperability with other non-containerized applications and general platform independency is assured, while still taking advantage the container cluster features. The resulting system is able to orchestrate, manage and scale application components individually, regardless of the underlying cloud technology

Das Fetale Alkoholsyndrom als pädagogische Herausforderung

Der nachstehende Beitrag behandelt die pädagogischen Implikationen des fetalen Alkoholsyndrom (engl. fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, kurz: FASD). Dieses entsteht durch mütterlichen Konsum von Alkohol während der Schwangerschaft und manifestiert sich in vielfältigen Störungen, Problemen und Behinderungen. Gleichzeitig handelt es sich bei FASD nicht um ein einheitliches Störungsbild, sondern um eine Benachteiligung, die sich in verschiedenen Dimensionen und Graden ausbilden kann – es wird daher, zumindest medizinisch, von einem Spektrum ausgegangen. Bislang wurde FASD vornehmlich aus medizinisch-diagnostischer Perspektive erforscht und diskutiert; die pädagogischen Implikationen wurden lediglich nachrangig thematisiert. Diesen Mangel an Thematisierung möchte dieser Beitrag adressieren, indem er sich einerseits dem Störungsbild FASD annähert und auf diagnostische Probleme hinweist, andererseits die Rolle von Schule bzw. pädagogischen Institutionen im Themenfeld FASD reflektiert. Der Beitrag endet mit der Identifikation von erziehungswissenschaftlichen Desiderata

How important are supermarkets for the diets of the urban poor in Africa?

Many developing countries are undergoing a profound transformation of food systems and retail environments. Especially in urban areas, a rapid growth of supermarkets is observed, which can affect consumer food choices and diets. Supermarkets may improve access to diverse foods at affordable prices, but may also encourage a switch from unprocessed to highly-processed and energy-dense foods that contribute to obesity. However, the use of supermarkets is positively correlated with income. That supermarkets already play an important role for the diets of many urban consumers does not necessarily mean that this is also true for the poorest population segments that are of particular interest for development policy. This article analyzes the diets and food purchase patterns of poor urban consumers in Kenya and Uganda. Representative data were collected from households in the slums of Nairobi and Kampala. The data show that the majority of these households are undernourished. They buy most food items in unprocessed form from various traditional retail outlets, including mom-and-pop shops, local markets, and kiosks. Relatively few sample households buy any of their food in supermarkets. Supermarkets account for only 3% and 0.4% of all food expenditures of slum dwellers in Nairobi and Kampala, respectively. Reasons for the low supermarket use of these poor households are discussed. The findings suggest that a focus on the modern retail sector alone will not suffice to ensure food and nutrition security for all