Reliability perceptions and water storage expenditures: Evidence from Nicaragua

Storing water at home has become a common practice in many areas with water delivery systems in developing countries. However, little is known about which factors motivate households to expend on water storage devices. Instrumental variable Tobit models are estimated to investigate the relationship between perceptions of water supply reliability and household expenditures on water storage devices in León, Nicaragua. Findings indicate that almost 80% of households use at least one storage device on which they expend an average of 0.87% of their income. Results show that reliability perceptions are the main factor driving household expenditures on storage devices, followed by home ownership and household income. Findings also indicate that reliability perceptions are associated with service performance and assessment of service hours relative to peers

How Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election outcome was forecasted with geodemographics and public sentiment analytics

In 2015, Nigeria held one of the most fiercely contested presidential elections in the nation’s recent democratic history. The outcome of the election was expected to exert significant influence on democratic practices on the African continent. The stiffness of the contest also meant that it was difficult to predict the likely winner of the election. This paper summarizes how an empirical approach was used to forecast the outcome of the election by modeling public sentiment data-set using a geodemographic framework. Results indicate that the main electorates that determined the outcome of the election were situated in thirteen battleground states. Additionally, results showed that two years before the presidential election, Goodluck Jonathan’s public approval ratings on corruption, insecurity, and the economy (the main drivers of the 2015 election) had nose-dived across many of the battleground states. This eventually contributed toward his loss

La competitividad sistémica de la MIPYME manufacturera en el nivel micro: caso de la fabricación de muebles de madera, Ecuador

La competitividad ha sido considerada, desde la teoría económica tradicional hasta la moderna, como un elemento de diferenciación entre los países a través de sus empresas. La evolución del concepto de competitividad lo inician los economistas clásicos por el año de 1776 hasta actuales corrientes con Porter (1990) en donde se apuesta por un análisis sistémico. En el Ecuador no existen parámetros establecidos para determinar la competitividad de las empresas, existe un dinamismo comercial donde cerca del 95% está cubierto por la micro, pequeña y mediana empresa por lo que se hace necesario realizar esta investigación que tiene como objetivo la medición de la competitividad en el nivel micro del enfoque sistémico, en las empresas de fabricación de muebles de madera. Para tal fin se utilizó el mapa de competitividad del BID, adaptado por Saavedra (2014); los principales hallazgos permiten determinar que las empresas estudiadas presentan baja competitividad. Los factores en los que destaca son Gestión ambiental, Aseguramiento de la calidad, Producción y operaciones y Planeación estratégica; la relación entre los factores y la competitividad muestra evidencia de la importancia de los Recursos Humanos para impulsar la competitividad de las empresas en este secto

Policy-making related actors' understandings about nature-society relationship : beyond modern ontologies? the case of Cuenca, Ecuador

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Over the last five decades the discursive debate on sustainability has reached prominence as the socio-ecological impacts of the human presence on Earth have grown rapidly. Nature discourses are interwoven with those of sustainability. Within this discursive field, a diverse set of competing discourses have emerged. Among the most radical ones, the discourse of Buen Vivir has recently gained relevance in Latin America. This position aims to depart from modern western ideologies, mainly those of nature-society dualism and Eurocentric universalism. In this study, the social perspectives about nature-society of subnational policy makers and other social actors involved in territorial planning in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador are examined. Four main social discourses are identified, which instead of breaking away from the society-nature divide, embrace it. Therefore, the case of Cuenca suggests that Ecuadorian citizens (including policy-makers) are still captured by the same discourses on nature-society belonging to the discursive field of modernity and its more contemporary corollaries: development and sustainable development. Hence, relational ontologies promoted by the discourse of Buen Vivir still do not resonate among Ecuadorian policy-related actors

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Background Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. Methods Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. Results Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. Conclusions Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) and Bioaccumulative Hydroxylated PBDE Metabolites in Young Humans from Managua, Nicaragua

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to investigate exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in a young urban population in a developing country, with focus on potentially highly exposed children working informally as scrap scavengers at a large municipal waste disposal site. We also set out to investigate whether hydroxylated metabolites, which not hitherto have been found retained in humans, could be detected. METHODS: We assessed PBDEs in pooled serum samples obtained in 2002 from children 11-15 years of age, working and sometimes also living at the municipal waste disposal site in Managua, and in nonworking urban children. The influence of fish consumption was evaluated in the children and in groups of women 15-44 years of age who differed markedly in their fish consumption. Hydroxylated PBDEs were assessed as their methoxylated derivates. The chemical analyses were performed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, using authentic reference substances. RESULTS: The children living and working at the waste disposal site showed very high levels of medium brominated diphenyl ethers. The levels observed in the referent children were comparable to contemporary observations in the United States. The exposure pattern was consistent with dust being the dominating source. The children with the highest PBDE levels also had the highest levels of hydroxylated metabolites. CONCLUSIONS: Unexpectedly, very high levels of PBDEs were found in children from an urban area in a developing country. Also, for the first time, hydroxylated PBDE metabolites were found to bioaccumulate in human serum

The value and limitations of local ecological knowledge: longitudinal and retrospective assessment of flagship species in Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica

1. Anthropogenic activities and climate change are affecting marine ecosystems worldwide, but systematic biodiversity assessments through periodic biomonitoring can be challenging and costly. Local ecological knowledge (LEK), obtained from experienced residents, can complement other approaches and provide improved understanding of the conservation status of marine areas. Here we explore the value and limitations of LEK to assess the status of several flagship species of tourism interest: cetaceans, sea turtles, whale sharks, and sea snakes in a unique tropical fiord and biodiversity hotspot, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica. 2. We analysed interviews conducted with fishermen and tour-boat guides in 2010 and 2020 and compared their responses to biomonitoring data obtained through boat-based sighting surveys during in the same two time periods. Our questionnaire asked for estimates of sighting frequencies in both years, and in 2020 it also inquired about perceived changes over the time gap. 3. A key limitation was that many interviewees from 2010 could not be relocated in 2020, though 13 repeat participants served as a panel. Their responses suggest shifts in abundance that vary across taxa. For example, changes in reported sighting frequencies from 2010 to 2020 indicate a possible decline in whales but an increase in sea snakes. Those changes were also reflected in our biomonitoring data, suggesting respondents were fairly accurate in their reports of current abundance. However, when asked about perceived changes over the decade we found their answers were not consistent with changes detected through their reported frequencies nor though biomonitoring. 4. Our results suggest LEK can be a good source of information for current assessment but highlight the potential biases of perceptions of change. Evaluating changes through LEK may best be done by obtaining interview data at multiple points in time and systematically assessing trends, though, notably, there can be challenges with acquiring consistent sample sizes. Interviews should not replace but can complement biomonitoring while also providing further value via community engagement and as an avenue to gain insights into local opinions regarding conservation measures

The quest to bring land under social and political control: land reform struggles of the past and present in Ecuador

Land reform was one of the most important policies introduced in Latin America in the twentieth century and remains high on the political agenda due to sustained pressure from rural social movements. Improving our understanding of the issue therefore remains a pressing concern. This paper responds to this need by proposing a new theoretical framework to explore land reform and providing a fresh analysis of historical and contemporary land struggles in Ecuador. Drawing on the pioneering work of Karl Polanyi, the paper characterizes these struggles as the attempt to increase the social and political control of land in the face of mounting commodification. The movement started in the 1960s and remains evident in Ecuador today. Exploring land reform in Ecuador from this theoretical perspective provides new insight into land struggles in the country and contributes to debates over land reforms of the past and present elsewhere in the Global South

Urban structure and dengue incidence in Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Dengue is currently the most important arboviral disease globally and is usually associated with built environments in tropical areas. Remotely sensed information can facilitate the study of urban mosquito-borne diseases by providing multiple temporal and spatial resolutions appropriate to investigate urban structure and ecological characteristics associated with infectious disease. In this study, coarse, medium and fine resolution satellite imagery (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spec- trometer, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer and QuickBird respectively) and ground-based data were analyzed for the Greater Puntarenas area, Costa Rica for the years 2002–04. The results showed that the mean normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was generally higher in the localities with lower incidence of dengue fever during 2002, although the correlation was statistically significant only in the dry season (r=-0.40; p=0.03). Dengue incidence was inversely correlated to built area and directly correlated with tree cover (r=0.75, p=0.01). Overall, the significant correlations between dengue incidence and urban structural variables (tree cover and building density) suggest that properties of urban structure may be associated with dengue incidence in tropical urban settings.National Institutes of Health/[P20RR020770]/NIH/Estados UnidosUniversity of Miami/[]/UM/Estados UnidosUniversidad de Costa Rica/[803-A6-401]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de MicrobiologíaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET