Investigation of Solar Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Performance: A Case Study in Ghana

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Free Senior High School Lunch Contributes to Dietary Quality of Nonresidential Students in Ghana.

BACKGROUND: School feeding offers an excellent opportunity for targeted intervention to students not only as means for improving educational outcomes but also enhancing nutritional outcomes. The Government of Ghana introduced the free lunch feeding policy for nonresidential students in senior high schools (SHS) in 2018. OBJECTIVE: We assessed unintended benefits of the free lunch program to dietary improvement. METHODS: This was an analytical cross-sectional study among 403 (202 beneficiary and 201 non-beneficiary) students in SHS. The Food and Agriculture Organization's standard procedure for measuring dietary diversity score (DDS) was followed. A 3-day dietary recall was used to assess school day DDS, while a 24-hour recall was used to assess weekend DDS of students. Differences in DDS and food group consumption were determined using student t test and χ2 test, respectively. RESULTS: Nearly all (98.5%) beneficiary students consumed the free school lunch and 7 (70%) in 10 of them consumed it on all school days. While the students did not differ in their weekend meal DDS (6.3 ± 1.4 vs 6.5 ± 1.4, P = .39), beneficiaries of the school lunch had higher lunch DDS (7.5 ± 0.5 vs 6.5 ± 1.4, P < .001) and whole day DDS (11.5 ± 1 vs 9.3 ± 2.0, P < .001) compared to non-beneficiary students on school days. Even though the school lunch increased food group intake, vitamin-A rich vegetables and tubers, fruits, flesh and organ meats, and dairy products were hardly provided as components of school lunch. CONCLUSION: Provision of free school lunch meal to nonresidential students in SHSs in Ghana could contribute to improved diet quality

Leveraging Integrated Model-Based Approaches to Unlock Bioenergy Potentials in Enhancing Green Energy and Environment

In the quest for a green economy, bioenergy has become a central component due to its ability to minimize depletion of natural energy resources and enhance environmental sustainability. However, the integration of bioenergy for a green economy has often led to policy resistance, the tendency for solutions to cause disastrous side effects on other aspects of the system that were not envisaged. The use of integrated model-based approaches for selection, design, and analysis of technological alternatives for bioenergy production would significantly enhance the systems’ sustainability by optimizing design and operation, improving growth and profitability, and enabling a more synergistic interaction between the engineering and the macroeconomic aspects of bioenergy production systems. This chapter is designed to develop model-based methodological frameworks that will support sustainable decision making by all stakeholders involved in the design, operation, and commercialization of bioenergy production systems. Practical case studies are presented for bioethanol, biomethane, and synthetic gas production

Quantitative microbial risk assessment of wastewater and faecal sludge reuse in Ghana

The probabilistic health risks of rotavirus and Ascaris infections associated with different scenarios of diluted wastewater and faecal sludge agricultural reuse in Ghana were estimated based on the Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) approach. The annual risks of rotavirus and Ascaris infections associated with diluted wastewater reuse scenarios were 10-2 and 10-3 to 10-4 respectively compared with the WHO tolerable health risk of 10-4 per person per year. The risk of Ascaris infection for the different scenarios of faecal sludge reuse ranged from 10-4 to 10-2 while it was <10-14 to 10-1 for rotavirus infections per single exposure. The treatment of faecal sludge significantly reduced the risk of rotavirus infections but had less effect on the reduction of Ascaris infections. It is stressed that the estimated risks of infection need to be validated against follow-up data obtained from epidemiological investigations coupled with studies on different health risk barriers

Nutritional status and dietary diversity of orphan and non - orphan children under five years: a comparative study in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Undernutrition in children under 5 years is a major risk factor to child deaths and is related to impaired cognitive development and lower school performance. Underprivileged children such as orphans are at particularly high risk of undernutrition. Little is however known about the nutritional status and dietary diversity of orphan children in Ghana. This study therefore compared the nutritional status and dietary diversity of orphan and non- orphan children. METHODS: An analytical cross - sectional study design was used. Two hundred and forty-six children (123 non- orphan and 123 orphans) were sampled from households (non - orphans) and four orphanages (orphans). Maternal / caregiver and child socio-demographic characteristics and dietary diversity of children was assessed with a semi - structured questionnaire. We measured anthropometric characteristics of children. Stunting, wasting and underweight in children was classified using Height - for - age Z - scores (HAZ), Weight - for - height Z - scores (WHZ) and Weight - for - age Z - scores (WAZ) respectively. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare the nutritional status and dietary diversity of orphan and non- orphan children. RESULTS: Majority of the children were male (52.4%). The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight was 17.9, 5.3 and 7.7% respectively for all children. There was no difference in the prevalence of stunting (17.1% vs 18.7%) (p = 0. 74), wasting (4.9% vs 5.7%) (p = 0.78) and underweight (7.3% vs 8.1%) (p = 0.81) among non - orphans and orphans. There was also no difference in mean HAZ (p = 0.52), WHZ (p = 0.27) and WAZ (p = 0.12) of non- orphan and orphan children. However, orphans had higher mean dietary diversity score (p <  0.001) and minimum dietary diversity (p <  0.001) than non - orphans. After controlling for potential confounders, non - orphans were 7.491 times more likely to have a low dietary diversity [AOR = 7.491; 95% CI (1.851-30.320); p = 0.005] compared to orphans. CONCLUSION: Present study data show no significant difference in the anthropometric status of orphan and non - orphan children. Orphans were more likely to receive a diversified diet than non - orphans

Software reliability prediction

Two methods are proposed to find the maximum likelihood parameter estimates of a number of software reliability models. On the basis of the results from analysing 7 sets of real data, these methods are found to be both efficient and reliable. The simple approach of adapting software reliability predictions by Keiller and Littlewood (1984) can produce improved predictions, but at the same time, introduces a lot of internal noise into the adapted predictions. This is due to the fact that the adaptor is a joined-up function. An alternative adaptive procedure, which involves the parametric spline adaptor, can produce at least as good adapted predictions without the predictions being contaminated by internal noise as in the simple approach. Miller and Sofer (1986a) proposed a method for estimating the failure rate of a program non-parametrically. Here, these non-parametric rates are used to produce reliability predictions and their quality is analysed and compared with the parametric predictions

Control de diarrea y dengue en escuelas primarias rurales de Colombia: protocolo de estudio para un ensayo aleatorio y controlado por conglomerados

Antecedentes.Las enfermedades diarreicas y el dengue son graves problemas de salud pública a nivel global. Cuando el suministro de agua potable es inadecuado, el almacenamiento de agua es crucial. La contaminación fecal del agua almacenada es una fuente común de las enfermedades diarreicas y, al mismo tiempo, el agua almacenada proporciona criaderos para los mosquitos vectores del dengue. Un manejo deficiente del agua doméstica y del saneamiento son, por lo tanto, determinantes potenciales de ambas enfermedades. Poco se sabe de la importancia del agua almacenada para el riesgo combinado de la diarrea y el dengue, sin embargo, una intervención compartida podría ser importante para el desarrollo de esfuerzos en gestión y control integrado. Aun menos conocidos son los efectos de un control integrado de estas enfermedades en los entornos escolares.El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar si las intervenciones contra la diarrea y el dengue reducían significativamente las enfermedades diarreicas y los factores de riesgo entomológico de dengue, en las escuelas primarias rurales de dos municipios de Cundinamarca.Metodología y diseño. Se trata de un ensayo por conglomerados, factorial de 2 x 2, controlado y de asignación aleatoria. Las instituciones elegibles fueron las escuelas rurales de los municipios de La Mesa y Anapoima en el departamento de Cundinamarca. Los estudiantes elegibles fueron los niños de las escuelas de los grados 0 a 5. Las escuelas fueron asignadas aleatoriamente a uno de los cuatro grupos del estudio: intervenciones de diarrea, intervenciones de dengue, las dos intervenciones, diarrea y dengue, y control. Las escuelas fueron estratificadas por municipio y asignadas mediante un acto público al inicio del ensayo. La variable de respuesta primaria para la diarrea fue la tasa de incidencia de diarrea en los niños de las escuelas, y para dengue, la densidad de adultos hembra de Aedes aegypti por escuela. Aproximadamente, 800 estudiantes de 34 escuelas se inscribieron en el ensayo con ocho escuelas en el grupo de diarrea, nueve en el de dengue, ocho en el de diarrea y dengue, y nueve en el grupo control. El ensayo fue financiado por el Consejo de Investigaciones de Noruega, la Universidad El Bosque y la Fundación Lazos de CalandaimaDiscusión. Este es el primer ensayo en que se investiga el efecto de un conjunto de intervenciones integradas para controlar las dos enfermedades, dengue y diarrea. Es también el primer ensayo para estudiar la combinación de intervenciones para el control de dichas enfermedades en entornos escolares.El artículo original fue publicado en inglés como: Diarrhea and dengue control in rural primary schools in Colombia – study protocol for a randomized controlled. Trial. 2012; 13:182. BioMed Central es el editor original del artículo. La información para la traducción de la publicación en español fue actualizada..© 2012 Overgaard HJ, et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cite

Norwegian drinking water supply systems and risk management: guidelines, directives and microbial risk assessment

Norsk drikkevannsforsyning og risiko: Retningslinjer, direktiver og mikrobiologisk risikovurdering. Overføring av sykdomsfremkallende organismer gjennom drikkevannsforsyningen utgjør en stadig utfordring for folkehelsen i mange utviklede land, inkludert Norge. Det finnes flere forskrifter og retningslinjer som er innrettet mot å redusere forekomsten av vannbårne sykdommer. Disse forskriftene og retningslinjene er basert på bestemte metoder for vannkvalitetsvurderinger og vannforvaltning. Sentralt i disse metodene står helserisikovurderinger, som kan gjøres med kvalitative, semi-kvantitative eller kvantitative metoder. I Norge har kvantitative epidemiologiske metoder vært viktige i forbindelse med helserisikovurderinger. Epidemiologiske metoder er imidlertid sjelden så sensitive at de kan detektere sykdomstilfeller som skyldes de lave konsentrasjonene av sykdomsfremkallende organismer som finnes i drikkevann ved normal drift. De er heller ikke egnet til hurtig å gi informasjon om smitteutbredelsen i en befolkning ved tilfeller av alvorlige negative hendelser i befolkningens vannforsyningssystem. I denne artikkelen foreslås det å ta i bruk kvantitativ mikrobiell risikovurdering (QMRA) som grunnlag for å håndtere risiko, og da som et utfyllende element til eksisterende forskrifter og retningslinjer. Det demonstreres hvordan en enkel QMRA kan implementeres for å besvare bestemte spørsmål rundt risikohåndtering som opptar den som drifter et vannverk. Det blir pekt på noen utfordringer som trolig vil oppstå ved implementering av QMRA for risikohåndtering i norske vannverk, og det gis til slutt noen anbefalinger til hvordan slike utfordringer kan møtes

Disentangling the risk factors and health risks associated with faecal sludge and wastewater reuse in Ghana

The reuse of faecal sludge and wastewater in agriculture is widespread worldwide. However, the practice is also associated with significant microbial health risks especially in countries where systems for the treatment and safe agricultural reuse of faecal sludge and wastewater either inadequate or non-existent. Thus, a major challenge is how to reduce the health risks associated with the practice without compromising on its benefits in these countries. Addressing this challenge requires a multi-faceted approach nested in an understanding of the exposure pathways and health risks associated with the practice for the effective development of risk mitigating measures. This thesis assesses the health risks associated with agricultural reuse of wastewater and faecal sludge in Ghana; and further assesses the effectiveness of potential interventions for mitigating the health risks. For this, an integrated methodology encapsulating stochastic and deterministic quantitative microbial risk assessment, epidemiology and cost-effectiveness analysis was employed. The health risks for farmers irrigating with polluted drain and stream water and consumers of the irrigated lettuce in Ghana were above the WHO tolerable Ascaris and rotavirus infection risks. For farmers, on-farm contaminated soil was the most significant health hazard compared with the irrigation water. The infection risk for consumers of the stream and drain irrigated lettuce was not significantly affected by contamination during post-harvest handling. Non-treatment interventions at the farm and in the kitchens of fast-food sellers were both effective and cost-effective in safeguarding the health of consumers’ of wastewater irrigated lettuce. The cost-effectiveness ratios (CERs) for the farm based and fast-food sector interventions were US$31/DALY (95$ 67/DALY (95% CI: 58-76) respectively. A combination of on-farm and post-harvest intervention was also cost-effective, as long as the adoption rates of either farmers or street food sellers did not fall below 70%. The rehabilitation of existing wastewater treatment plants for irrigation was also cost-effective (US$31/DALY, 95$ 786/DALY, 95% CI: 678 - 893). The study recommends a combination of treatment and non-treatment interventions in safeguarding the health of consumers of wastewater irrigated vegetables. Two traditional sludge drying methods random spot spreading and pit containment were employed by farmers to process sludge into ‘cakes’ before soil incorporation. Sludge dried for ≥60 days in the random spot spread and ≥90 days in the pit methods met the WHO monitoring benchmark for Ascaris and E. coli with respect to sludge application. By applying quantitative microbial risk assessment, the viral and Ascaris infection risks for for these sludge drying times for three exposure pathways a) accidental ingestion of small amounts of cakes; b) accidental ingestion of cake sludge-soil mixture; and c) inhalation of aerosols (for only viral infection) were assessed. The infection risks for the drying times in the three exposure pathways were acceptable given that the tolerable annual infection risks were 10^-4 for rotavirus and 10^-2 for Ascaris. Seasonality analysis of diarrhoeal disease incidence in sludge applying communities showed a higher diarrhoeal disease incidence (RR= 1.04, 95%CI: 0.61- 1.45) in the period of sludge application than the period of non-sludge application (RR=0.99, 95% CI: 0.73-1.24). However, this trend was not statistically significant (p >0.05). Both rainfall and temperature events as well as their lags were associated with the seasonal variations in diarrhoeal disease incidence. Further analysis of diarrhoeal disease incidence in sludge applying households using hierarchical effect decomposition models revealed that public domain risk factors were the most important determinants of diarrhoeal disease incidence in the sludge households. This was followed by domestic domain and distal socioeconomic risk factors respectively. The combined population attributable fractions of the public domain risk factors was 24% accounted for by distance to water sources (18%) and sludge drying time (6%). Not washing hands with soap was the main risk factor in the domestic domain and contributed 18% of the diarrhoeal disease incidence. In the distal socioeconomic block, the main risk factor was the wealth status of the households, contributing 15% of the diarrhoeal disease incidence. About 70% of the combined effect of the distal and public domain risk factors was mediated by the domestic domain factors in the pathway to diarrhoeal disease transmission. The study recommends an integrated multi-barrier risk management strategy for mitigating diarrhoeal disease transmission in the faecal sludge applying households focusing on the public (including the farm) and domestic domain risk factors.Avløpsvann og avløpsslam gjenbrukes i landbruket i store deler av verden, og dette får økt aktualitet. Denne praksisen kan imidlertid også medføre en betydelig helserisiko, spesielt i land hvor systemer for behandling er mangelfulle eller fraværende, og hvor de mangler rutiner for sikker gjenbruk av fekalt slam i landbruket. Det er derfor en hovedutfordring å finne ut hvordan helserisikoen knyttet til gjenbruk av avløpsvann og slam kan reduseres, slik at denne ressursen kan utnyttes videre i disse landene. For å kunne utvikle effektive risikoreduserende tiltak kreves det ulike faglige tilnærminger basert på en forståelse av eksponeringsveier og hvilken helserisiko som er knyttet til gjeldende praksis. I denne avhandlingen vurderes helserisiko ved gjenbruk av avløpsvann og avløpsslam i landbruket i Ghana, samt effektiviteten av potensielle intervensjoner for reduksjon i helserisiko. Vurderingene er gjennomført ved bruk av en integrert metodikk som omfatter stokastisk og deterministisk kvantitativ mikrobiell risikovurdering, epidemiologi og analyser av kostnadseffektivitet. Helserisikoen for gårdbrukere som vanner med forurenset overvann og elvevann, og konsumenter av vannet salat i Ghana var høyere enn WHO´s anbefalte grenseverdi for akseptabel Ascaris og rotavirus infeksjonsrisiko. Stedlig forurenset jord utgjorde en større risiko for gårdbrukerne enn vannings-vann. Infeksjonsrisikoen for konsumenter av salat som var vannet med overvann og elvevann var ikke påvirket av kontaminering grunnet håndtering etter høsting. Kostnadseffektiviteten for tiltak på gården og i gatekjøkken-sektoren var henholdsvis US $31/DALY (95$67/DALY (95% CI:58-76). En kombinasjon av tiltak på gården og tiltak etter høsting var også kostnadseffektivt, så lenge deltagelsen blant bønder og gatekjøkkenpersonalet ikke var under 70 %. Rehabilitering av eksisterende avløpsrenseanlegg til bruk i vanning var også kostnadseffektivt (US $31/DALY, 95$ 786/DALY, 95% CI:678-893). Studien anbefaler en kombinasjon av avløpsbehandling og tiltak uten behandling for å sikre helsen til konsumenter av grønnsaker som er vannet med avløpsvann. Gårdbrukerne brukte to tradisjonelle slamtørkemetoder, tilfeldig punktspredning på jordet og avvanning i liten slamlagune, før nedmolding i jorda. Slammet som var tørket ≥60 dager ved tilfeldig punktspredning og ≥90 dager i slamlaguner, tilfredsstilte WHO´s grenseverdier med hensyn på innhold av Ascaris og E.coli. Ved hjelp av kvantitativ mikrobiell risikovurdering ble risikoen for virus og Ascaris infeksjon ved disse tørkemetodene vurdert for tre ulike eksponeringsveier, a) inntak av små mengder av tørket slam ved uhell; b) inntak av en blanding av tørrslam og jord ved uhell og c) inhalering av aerosoler (bare for virus infeksjon). Infeksjonsrisikoen ved de tre eksponeringsveiene ble vurdert til å være akseptabel, gitt at grensen for akseptabel årlig infeksjonsrisiko er 10^-4 for rotavirus og 10^-2 for Ascaris. En analyse av sesongvariasjoner i forekomst av diaré-sykdom i de samfunnene som gjenbruker slam viste en høyere forekomst (RR= 1.04, 95%CI: 0.61-1.45) i slamspredningsperioden, sammenlignet med perioden uten slamspredning (RR=0.99, 95% CI: 0.73-1.24). Denne tendensen var dog ikke statistisk signifikant (p >0.05). Både nedbørmengde og temperatur, samt deres forsinkelse bidro til sesongvariasjoner i diarétilfeller. Videre analyse av forekomst av diarésykdommer i ”slam-husholdningene” gjennomført ved hjelp av en hierarkisk dekomponeringsmodell, viste at de samfunnsrelaterte risikofaktorene var de viktigste determinantene for diarésykdom i disse husholdningene. Deretter fulgte risikofaktorer i husholdningen og sosio-økonomiske risikofaktorer. Av de samfunnsrelaterte faktorene var avstanden til vannkilder og slamtørketid de viktigste. Disse faktorene forklarte til sammen 24 % av alle diarétilfellene i husholdningene. Den viktigste risikofaktoren i husholdningen var manglende håndvask med såpe og utgjorde 18 % av dirétilfellene i husholdningen. Den viktigste sosi-økonomiske faktoren var velstandsnivå som forklarte 15 % av tilfellene. Omtrent 70 % av den kombinerte effekten av sosio-økonomiske og samfunnsrelaterte faktorer på overføring av diarésykdommer er påvirket av faktorer i husholdningen. Studien anbefaler et helhetlig rammeverk for risikohåndtering som fokuserer på risikofaktorer på gården, i lokalsamfunnet og i husholdningen, for å redusere forekomsten av diaré

Integrated Health Risk Management for Urban and Peri-Urban Wastewater Irrigation - (1/5) Entomological data, 2013

Worldwide about 2 million hectares of agricultural fields are irrigated with wastewater. The practice of wastewater use is particularly pronounced in the urban and peri-urban areas of developing and emerging economies. Wastewater use in urban agriculture can serve as a common denominator for the transmission of diarrhoeal, helminth and malaria diseases if not undertaken in a safe manner. This project aims to assess the contribution of informal urban wastewater irrigation to both pathogenic and mosquito vector related disease risks. The specific objectives were: 1. To assess if there is any relationship between irrigation water quality (including pathogens) and mosquito vector population density in wastewater irrigated fields; 2. To identify informal wastewater irrigation practices associated with increased risk of diarrhoeal, helminths and malaria disease risks; 3.To estimate the fraction of diarrhoeal, helminths and malaria risks attributable to urban wastewater irrigation. To address these objectives, a multidiciplinary study involving entomology, microbial and physico-chemical analysis, socio-demographic surveys, epidemiological surveys and quantitative microbial risk assessment was undertaken. All investigations were carried out in the Kumasi Metropolitan Area, Ghana. The project is divided into five parts. This dataset includes data from "Integrated Health Risk Management for Urban and Peri-Urban Wastewater Irrigation - (1/5) Entomological data, 2013"