The Potential to Address Disease Vectors in Favelas in Brazil Using Sustainable Drainage Systems:Zika, Drainage and Greywater Management

Residents of informal settlements, the world over, suffer consequences due to the lack of drainage and greywater management, impacting human and environmental health. In Brazil, the presence of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in urban areas promotes infections of the Zika virus as well as companion viruses, such as dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. By using observation and interviews with the community, this paper shows how a simple sustainable drainage system approach could prevent the accumulation of on-street standing water, and thus reduce opportunities for the mosquito to breed and reduce infection rates. During the interview phase, it became apparent that underlying misinformation and misunderstandings prevail related to existing environmental conditions in favelas and the role of the mosquito in infecting residents. This inhibits recommendations made by professionals to reduce breeding opportunities for the disease vector. Whilst unrest is an issue in favelas, it is not the only issue preventing the human right to reliable, safe sanitation, including drainage. In “pacified” favelas which may be considered safe(r), the infrastructure is still poor and is not connected to the city-wide sanitation/treatment networks

Scenes of witnessing in Paul Celan, Anselm Kiefer and Daniel Libeskind.

In my dissertation I concentrate on three modes of representation---poetry, painting and architecture---and examine their relation to the working through of trauma in postwar German aesthetics and the Holocaust. I explore how Kiefer and Libeskind translate Celan's poetic invocations of trauma into the visual arts. Following Celan's command from Engfuhrung, Read no more---look! Look no more---go, I investigate how these three artists seduce the spectator into entering the aesthetic voids of their respective projects and solicit from them an engagement with the historical void of the Shoah. Through an imposition of perceptual violence, the artist provokes the spectator to read, see and enter the historical voids figured in the artwork. I begin with Saul Friedlander's thesis that historians need a new category other than the sublime to discuss the terror of the Shoah. While some scholars employ Kant to discuss the interpretive limits of the Shoah, I argue that they fail to reckon with Kant's concept by dismissing the ethical implications behind the sublime and its call for a witness. I reject this application of Kant's negative sublime in the context of the Shoah, in favor of Freud's model of the uncanny. My use of what I call the holocaustal uncanny enables me to approach the representational limits of the Shoah and to examine the act of secondary witnessing in aesthetic depictions of an historical trauma. Taking three case studies, I explore how each artist intervenes during a shifting moment of memory work in Germany's reflections on the Holocaust. While I offer a much-needed critical study of the ethics of mourning in relation to Celan's poetry, I also expand upon contemporary theoretical debates on traumatic memory. I conclude by analyzing how the New German Republic transforms the passive consumption of traumatic memory into an act of historical agency through the founding of museums and memorials. In addition to probing how Celan constructs a social space in which one can bear witness to a trauma, I investigate how other artists in postwar German transform this icon of Holocaust lyric in their respective media to commemorate the Shoah in provocative and challenging ways.Ph.D.ArchitectureArt historyCommunication and the ArtsComparative literatureGerman literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125734/2/3016888.pd

Sustainable Drainage to address Zika and lack of drainage in favelas, Brazil: community perspectives

The 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Brazil established that neonate microcephaly was related to maternal infection by the virus during pregnancy, the highest densities of which occurred in the north-east and south-east of Brazil, the country’s most populated areas. These areas were typically associated with informal settlements or favelas, which lacked effective water management, sanitation and drainage; all of these provided suitable breeding environments for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the Zika virus vector. This paper reports on a novel study of community perceptions around the potential for sustainable drainage systems to provide a means of reducing areas for the mosquito to breed and hence reduce Zika infections in favelas. Interviews were carried out with key external stakeholders working with favelas and members of the favela community. Poor management of water supply, drainage and solid waste were clearly emphasised by participants, illustrating gaps in current research connecting these areas. Participants proposed that only a holistic approach could address sanitation issues, hence the distribution of Zika-carrying mosquitos, subsequent infections and microcephaly. An approach was therefore needed taking account of the environment as a whole, increasing public awareness of sanitation and environmental health, improving sanitation infrastructure and providing adequate systems for solid waste management.</p

The E-cigarette or Vaping Product Use–Associated Lung Injury Epidemic: Pathogenesis, Management, and Future Directions: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report

E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) is a severe pulmonary illness associated with the use of e-cigarettes or vaping products that was officially identified and named in 2019. This American Thoracic Society workshop was convened in 2021 to identify and prioritize research and regulatory needs to adequately respond to the EVALI outbreak and to prevent similar instances of disease associated with e-cigarette or vaping product use. An interdisciplinary group of 26 experts in adult and pediatric clinical care, public health, regulatory oversight, and toxicology were convened for the workshop. Four major topics were examined: 1) the public health and regulatory response to EVALI; 2) EVALI clinical care; 3) mechanisms contributing to EVALI; and 4) needed actions to address the health effects of EVALI. Oral presentations and group discussion were the primary modes used to identify top priorities for addressing EVALI. Initiatives including a national EVALI case registry and biorepository, integrated electronic medical record coding system, U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation and enforcement of nicotine e-cigarette standards, regulatory authority over nontobacco-derived e-cigarettes, training in evaluating exogenous exposures, prospective clinical studies, standardized clinical follow-up assessments, ability to more readily study effects of cannabinoid e-cigarettes, and research to identify biomarkers of exposure and disease were identified as critical needs. These initiatives will require substantial federal investment as well as changes to regulatory policy. Overall, the workshop identified the need to address the root causes of EVALI to prevent future outbreaks. An integrated approach from multiple perspectives is required, including public health; clinical, basic, and translational research; regulators; and users of e-cigarettes. Improving the public health response to reduce the risk of another substantial disease-inducing event depends on coordinated actions to better understand the inhalational toxicity of these products, informing the public of the risks, and&nbsp;developing and enforcing regulatory standards for all e-cigarettes