Analysis and Assessment on Compressed Cement Stabilized Earth Blocks as an Alternative Wall making Materials

This paper provides a detailed study on the technical and Economical information on the production of compressed cement stabilized soil blocks an alternative wall making material. With suitable soil types, stabilization and production techniques. The test results have shown that blocks produced using 6% (percent cement) as stabilser have equal compressive strength with hollow concrete blocks when tested at the age of 56days. In addition, increasing cement content results into the compressive strength and a decrease in the absorption capacity of the soil blocks; and increment of the compaction pressure has also improved the compressive strength of the soil cement blocks significantly. The influence of cement types on compressive strength development were also analyzed with the economical advantage of the blocks

Time-to-pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes in a South African population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Time-to-pregnancy (TTP) has never been studied in an African setting and there are no data on the rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa. The study objectives were to measure TTP and the rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes in South Africa, and to determine the reliability of the questionnaire tool.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was cross-sectional and applied systematic stratified sampling to obtain a representative sample of reproductive age women for a South African population. Data on socio-demographic, work, health and reproductive variables were collected on 1121 women using a standardized questionnaire. A small number (n = 73) of randomly selected questionnaires was repeated to determine reliability of the questionnaire. Data was described using simple summary statistics while Kappa and intra-class correlation statistics were calculated for reliability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 1121 women, 47 (4.2%) had never been pregnant. Mean gravidity was 2.3 while mean parity was 2.0 There were a total of 2467 pregnancies; most (87%) resulted in live births, 9.5% in spontaneous abortion and 2.2% in still births. The proportion of planned pregnancies was 39% and the median TTP was 6 months. The reliability of the questionnaire for TTP data was good; 63% for all participants and 97% when censored at 14 months. Overall reliability of reporting adverse pregnancy outcomes was very high, ranging from 90 - 98% for most outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first comprehensive population-based reproductive health study in South Africa, to describe the biologic fertility of the population, and provides rates for planned pregnancies and adverse pregnancy outcomes. The reliability of the study questionnaire was substantial, with most outcomes within 70 - 100% reliability index. The study provides important public information for health practitioners and researchers in reproductive health. It also highlights the need for public health intervention programmes and epidemiological research on biologic fertility and adverse pregnancy outcomes in the population.</p

Inter-connection between land use/land cover change and herders’/farmers’ livestock feed resource management strategies: a case study from three Ethiopian eco-environments

AbstractWe assessed land use/land cover changes from remotely sensed satellite imagery and compared this with community perceptions on availability/use of livestock feed resources and feed deficit management strategies since the 1973s in three districts representing the pastoral, agro-pastoral and mixed crop-livestock eco-environments of Ethiopia. We found that land use/land cover changes are proceeding in all eco-environments and that transitions are from grasslands, and forest lands to bush/shrub lands and crop lands in the pastoral site (Liben), from bush/shrub lands and grasslands to crop lands in agro-pastoral site (Mieso) and from bush/shrub lands, forest lands and grasslands to crop lands in the mixed crop-livestock site (Tiyo). The changes significantly affected livestock feed resources and feed deficit management strategies available to households. Over the last 30–40 years, grazing resources available to livestock keepers have been declining with resultant increase in the contribution of crop residues and other feeds from crop lands (weeds and crop thinnings) as compared to feeds from grasslands. The feed deficit management strategies of households are also changing significantly from mobility to herd management and feed conservation in the pastoral areas; from mobility to feed conservation and purchasing of feed in the agro-pastoral areas and from transhumance to feed conservation and purchase of feed in the mixed crop-livestock areas. Hence feed resources and their availability vary with time and eco-environments indicating the need for the development of eco-environment/site specific feed management strategies in order to support productive stock in the study areas and similar eco-environments

Bird tolerance to humans in open tropical ecosystems

AbstractAnimal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife–human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards humans was lower (i.e., escape distance was longer) in rural rather than urban populations and in populations exposed to lower human disturbance (measured as human footprint index). In addition, larger species and species with larger clutches and enhanced flight ability are less tolerant to human approaches and escape distances increase when birds were approached during the wet season compared to the dry season and from longer starting distances. Identification of key factors affecting animal tolerance towards humans across large spatial and taxonomic scales may help us to better understand and predict the patterns of species distributions in the Anthropocene.</jats:p

Aligning evidence generation and use across health, development, and environment

© 2019 The Authors Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice collaboration, presents principles and recommendations that help harmonize methods for evidence generation and use. Recommendations were generated in the context of designing and evaluating evidence of impact for interventions related to five global challenges (stabilizing the global climate, making food production sustainable, decreasing air pollution and respiratory disease, improving sanitation and water security, and solving hunger and malnutrition) and serve as a starting point for further iteration and testing in a broader set of contexts and disciplines. We adopted six principles and emphasize three methodological recommendations: (1) creation of compatible results chains, (2) consideration of all relevant types of evidence, and (3) evaluation of strength of evidence using a unified rubric. We provide detailed suggestions for how these recommendations can be applied in practice, streamlining efforts to apply multi-objective approaches and/or synthesize evidence in multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary teams. These recommendations advance the necessary process of reconciling existing evidence standards in health, development, and environment, and initiate a common basis for integrated evidence generation and use in research, practice, and policy design