Quantifying the Environmental Impacts of Cookstove Transitions: A Societal Exergy Analysis Based Model of Energy Consumption and Forest Stocks in Honduras

Unsustainable consumption of biofuels contributes to deforestation and climate change, while household air pollution from burning solid biofuels in homes results in millions of premature deaths globally every year. Honduras, like many low and medium Human Development Index countries, depends on primary solid biofuels for more than 30% of its primary energy supply (as of 2013). We conducted a societal exergy analysis and developed a forest stock model for Honduras for 1971–2013 and used the results to model an energy transition from traditional wood stoves to either improved efficiency wood cookstoves or modern fuel cookstoves (using Electricity or Liquefied petroleum gas) over the period 2013–2050. The exergy analysis and forest model enabled quantification of the environmental tradeoffs between the improved efficiency and fuel switching scenarios. We find that the continued reliance on wood within both the existing and improved wood cookstove scenarios would exhaust forest stocks by 2050, though improved efficiency could reduce national greenhouse gas emissions. Modern fuel cookstoves would reduce household air pollution, emissions, and deforestation. However, the best alternative to successfully reduce household air pollution, GHG emissions, and deforestation is a rapid switch to electric stoves with significant investment in renewable-based electricity

Cholecystectomy Is Risker in Male Patients

Introduction: While cholecystitis has a female preponderance, some observe a trend towards more challenging disease in male patients. The confluence of sex and patient acuity has not been thoroughly investigated. We hypothesize that men present with worse disease compared with women, as evidenced by higher rates of open surgery and higher resource consumption. Methods: An inpatient registry from a 5-hospital system was queried for cholecystectomy procedures not associated with neoplasm or malignancy. Cases from 2015 to 2021 were included. Demographics, clinical and outcome variables were analyzed. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were performed. The data were de-identified before analysis and deemed exempt from IRB review, and were analyzed using R within R-Studio. Results: There were 2789 cholecystectomy patients, 1616 (58%) were women and 1173 (42%) were men. Demographics and baseline health characteristics differed across sex. Univariate analysis highlighted that males experienced more harms (1.35 vs 1.14; p = 0.002), more open approaches (18% vs 11%; p \u3c 0.001), longer inpatient lengths of stays (median: 4 vs 3 days; p \u3c 0.001), higher hospital cost ($15,694 vs$13,173; p \u3c 0.001), increased laboratory orders (37.65 vs 30.01; p \u3c 0.001), higher MS-DRG weight (2.104 vs 1.842; p \u3c 0.001) and greater mortality risk (56% vs 36%; p \u3c 0.001). Further, multivariate analysis found male cholecystectomy patients were correlated with higher instances of open surgical approach (OR: 1.80; p \u3c 0.001), hospital readmission (OR: 1.50; p = 0.008), and higher cost (β: $981; R2: 0.27; p = 0.006). Conclusion: Inpatient male cholecystectomy patients present with worse disease and require more hospital resources

Fishery Discards: Factors Affecting Their Variability within a Demersal Trawl Fishery

Discards represent one of the most important issues within current commercial fishing. It occurs for a range of reasons and is influenced by an even more complex array of factors. We address this issue by examining the data collected within the Danish discard observer program and describe the factors that influence discarding within the Danish Kattegat demersal fleet over the period 1997 to 2008. Generalised additive models were used to assess how discards of the 3 main target species, Norway lobster, cod and plaice, and their subcomponents (under and over minimum landings size) are influenced by important factors and their potential relevance to management. Our results show that discards are influenced by a range of different factors that are different for each species and portion of discards. We argue that knowledge about the factors influential to discarding and their use in relation to potential mitigation measures are essential for future fisheries management strategies

Religions, Poverty Reduction and Global Development Institutions

Religious traditions have always played a central role in supporting those experiencing poverty, through service delivery as well as the provision of spiritual resources that provide mechanisms for resilience at both the individual and community level. However, the fact that religions can be seen to support social structures and practices that contribute towards inequality and conflict, also underscores a role for religious traditions in creating conditions of poverty. While the Western-led modern global development institutions that have emerged since the Second World War have tended to be secular in nature, over the past decade or so there has been an apparent ‘turn to religion’ by these global development institutions, as well as in academic development studies. This reflects the realization that modernization and secularization do not necessarily go together, and that religious values and faith actors are important determinants in the drive to reduce poverty, as well as in structures and practices that underpin it. This paper traces three phases of engagement between religions and global development institutions. In phase one, the ‘pre-secular’ or the ‘integrated phase’ seen during the colonial era, religion and poverty reduction were intimately entwined, with the contemporary global development project being a legacy of this. The second phase is the ‘secular’ or the ‘fragmented’ phase, and relates to the era of the global development industry, which is founded on the normative secularist position that modernization will and indeed should lead to secularization. The third phase is characterized by the ‘turn to religion’ from the early 2000s. Drawing the three phases together and reflecting on the nature of the dynamics within the third phase, the ‘turn to religion’, this paper is underpinned by two main questions. First, what does this mean for the apparent processes of secularization? Is this evidence that they are being reversed and that we are witnessing the emergence of the ‘desecularization of development’ or of a ‘post-secular development praxis’? Second, to what extent are FBOs working in development to be defined as neo-liberalism’s ‘little platoons’—shaped by and instrumentalized to the service of secular neo-liberal social, political and economic systems, or do we need to develop a more sophisticated account that can contribute towards better policy and practice around poverty reduction

Educating indigenous people: historical analysis and contemporary practices

No abstract available