Global Biomethanation Potential from Food Waste- A Review

Globally, there is a great variation in food production and food waste generation. These make the application of biomethanation to gain interest in reduction of harmful effects of the waste generated in the environment as well as human health. Furthermore, it could play an important role to compensate the loss in food security by energy security. The statistics of the global food production and waste generation was collected from the literature, it was found that roughly one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally, which is about 1.3 billion ton per year. The total per capita production of edible parts of food for human consumption is, in Europe and North-America, about 900 kg/year and, in sub- Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia, 460 kg/year. Per capita food wasted by consumers in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while in sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is 6-11 kg/year. It has been reported that if 5.5 million tons of food waste is treated by anaerobic digestion, it could generate enough electricity to power 164,000 houses. These make it suitable for each and every country to generate methane from the available type of food waste. Keywords: Biomethanation, Food waste, Anaerobic digestion, Per capit

Necessitarismo e possibilismo em Leibniz

O tema deste artigo é a questão clássica, se Leibniz realmente conseguiu superar o necessitarismo de Espinosa. Leibniz recorre à teoria dos mundos possíveis para evitar o necessitarismo, segundo o qual somente um mundo pode ser realizado. Para ele, no ato de criação do mundo, Deus age apenas sob coação moral, não lógica. Mas a realização do melhor possível parece não apenas resultado de uma obrigação meramente moral, como Leibniz pretendia, mas sim lógica, na medida em que supor que o Ser perfeito age imperfeitamente implica uma contradição lógica. Além disso, só porque outros mundos são imanentemente possíveis, não se pode concluir que eles realmente poderiam ser atualizados por Deus. AbstractIn this paper I shall discuss how successful Leibniz was in overcoming Spinoza´s determinism. In order to avoid determinism, Leibniz uses his famous theory of possible worlds, according to which only one world could be realized by God. He claims that, in creating the world, God is bound only by moral constraints, but not by logical constraints. However, as I shall argue, the creation of the best possible world is not just a matter of moral obligation, but also a matter of logic. This is so because the supposition that a perfect Being could act in an  imperfect way would imply a logical contradiction. Moreover, from the fact that other worlds are intrinsically possible, it doesn't follow that they could actually be created by God

Loss of correlation between HIV viral load and CD4+ T-cell counts in HIV/HTLV-1 co-infection in treatment naive Mozambican patients

Seven hundred and four HIV-1/2-positive, antiretroviral therapy (ART) naïve patients were screened for HTLV-1 infection. Antibodies to HTLV-1 were found in 32/704 (4.5%) of the patients. Each co-infected individual was matched with two HIV mono-infected patients according to World Health Organization clinical stage, age +/-5 years and gender. Key clinical and laboratory characteristics were compared between the two groups. Mono-infected and co-infected patients displayed similar clinical characteristics. However, co-infected patients had higher absolute CD4+ T-cell counts (P = 0.001), higher percentage CD4+ T-cell counts (P < 0.001) and higher CD4/CD8 ratios (P < 0.001). Although HIV plasma RNA viral loads were inversely correlated with CD4+ T-cell-counts in mono-infected patients (P < 0.0001), a correlation was not found in co-infected individuals (P = 0.11). Patients with untreated HIV and HTLV-1 co-infection show a dissociation between immunological and HIV virological markers. Current recommendations for initiating ART and chemoprophylaxis against opportunistic infections in resource-poor settings rely on more readily available CD4+ T-cell counts without viral load parameters. These guidelines are not appropriate for co-infected individuals in whom high CD4+ T-cell counts persist despite high HIV viral load states. Thus, for co-infected patients, even in resource-poor settings, HIV viral loads are likely to contribute information crucial for the appropriate timing of ART introduction

Crítica, Dedução e Facto da Razão

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Waiting time, wasted time : a pilot study to investigate the effect of reduced waiting time on demand for antenatal care, South region Mozambique 2016

This one-page brief outlines a study aimed at reducing wait times for antenatal care. The intervention had significant impacts on workload management. The caseload was better distributed with health facilities less overwhelmed in the first hours of the day, thus allowing for nurses to better manage concurrent tasks. Of 1600 pregnant women surveyed, 99% were satisfied with the intervention. Workable appointment systems can be implemented in low-income countries, improving antenatal care

a secondary analysis of 2011 DHS and 2015 IMASIDA datasets

BACKGROUND: In Mozambique, the prevalence of malaria in children under 5 years of age is among the highest in the world, but limited data exist on determinants of care-seeking behaviour for malaria. This study aimed at determining the trends and factors associated with care-seeking behaviour for fever among children under 5 years of age and to assess the treatment practices for malaria. METHODS: Secondary data analysis of two cross-sectional studies. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize socio-economic and demographic characteristics of participants, using data from the 2011 Demographic and Health Survey and 2015 Indicators of Immunization, Malaria and HIV/AIDS Survey. Complex sampling logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with care-seeking behaviour, with estimated adjusted odds ratio and respective 95% confidence intervals, only for 2015 IMASIDA data. RESULTS: A total of 10,452 and 5168 children under 5 years of age were enrolled in the 2011 DHS and 2015 IMASIDA, respectively. Care-seeking for fever in public and private sectors remained stable during this period (62.6%; 835/1432 in 2011 and 63.7%; 974/1529 in 2015). The main place where care was sought in both surveys was public hospitals (86.2%; 773/897 in 2011 and 86.7%; 844/974 in 2015). Prescription of anti-malarial drugs increased from 42.9% (385/897) in 2011 to 53.8% (524/974) in 2015. Artemether-lumefantrine was the most used anti-malarial drug for febrile children in both surveys and its use increased from 59.0% (219/373) in 2011 to 89.3% (457/512) in 2015. Data from 2015 elucidated that care-seeking was more common in children whose mothers had a secondary level of education (AOR = 2.27 [95% CI 1.15-4.49]) and among those in poorer quintile (AOR = 1.46 [95% CI 0.83-1.90]). Mothers with higher education level (AOR = 0.16 [95% CI 0.34-0.78]) were less likely to seek out care. People from Manica (AOR = 2.49 [1.03-6.01]), Sofala ([AOR = 2.91 [1.03-8.24]), Inhambane (AOR = 3.95 [1.25-12.45]), Gaza (AOR = 3.25 [1.22-8.65]) and Maputo Province (AOR = 2.65 [1.10-6.41]) were more likely to seek care than people from Maputo City. CONCLUSION: Data from this study showed that care-seeking in Mozambique remained suboptimal. Interventions to raise the awareness for early care-seeking during episodes of fever should be urgently reinforced and intensified.publishersversionpublishe