Architecture and the creation of worlds

This thesis is an enquiry by creative practice into the academic and aesthetic (avant-garde) practice of architecture. It explores the notion of the virtual as pure potentiality following an event, and defines architecture as the site of such potentiality. (Alain Badiou names event as the moment /encounter which initiates a radical break from a given situation /state of affairs. There are four types of event: artistic, political, scientific and amorous).The thesis follows two parallel strands of enquiry. One, into the material production of the architectural object and topological space, this is titled the actual; and the other, an investigation into the philosophical and antagonistic nature of the virtual, this is titled the virtual. The actual deals with the literature review, methodology, context of study and proposal for (the site of) actual engagement with theory, including a design element (House of the Chinese Mantis); while the virtual explores (through a series of five international and interdisciplinary conference papers) the philosophical problems of emergence. The 'context of study' in the actual centres around the move from the fetish of commodities to seduction and concludes with eroticism, while the body of work in the virtual concentrates on the notions of sovereignty, becoming, and concrete subjectivity.Following the technological practices of the avant-garde between hypersurface theory and catalytic formations in architecture, the thesis rejects the claims of virtual space as the digital space of computer -based design, and of emergence as mimetic and /or algorithm based design. It argues that the virtual is the intangible space of creative unfolding following Bergson and Deleuze, but resists the claim in Deleuze that event is a chance occurring. Also, it resists the claim in Baudrillard that seduction and /or enchanted simulation are event and abandons them to focus on the amorous (one of the four events in Badiou). This creates an inflection in the enquiry, moving the thesis towards Plato and the Renaissance, and a contemporary resurrection in architecture, of the tragic, as concrete manifestation of the amorous encounter.The method of inquiry is structured after the nomadic logic of the War Machine in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, and of the revolutionary nature of fidelity to the scientific event in Badiou, which argues that new knowledge is created by 'revolutions' and from the anomalies and collaborations which arise as a result of such 'detours'; it is a strategy justified by the science historians Feyerabend, Kuhn and Lakatos.The thesis takes the form of two books (the actual and the virtual), and concludes that the avant-garde practice of architecture, with its infinite potentialities is distinct from the bureaucratic or State apparatus of building, and that the commonplace appropriation of the avant-garde by the State, as seen in the institutional recourse to parametrics, appears unproductive and uncreative with regard to knowledge

Corneal Diseases in Children in The Gambia

Background: Blindness surveys carried out in The Gambia in 1986 reported childhood blindness from non-trachomatous corneal diseases as the commonest cause of blindness in children. The major causes were, post measles keratopathy, vitamin A deficiency and ophthalmia neonatorum.Aim: This study aims to find out what impact the ExpandedProgramme on Immunization and the development of humanresources have had on the causes/pattern of corneal eyediseases in children in The Gambia.Design: A prospective six-month hospital-based study.Method: The eyes of all children aged 0-16 years presenting at theRoyal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) in Banjul, TheGambia, from December 2005 to May 2006, were examinedfor aetiology of corneal eye diseases. All the children weretreated according to the diagnosis.Result: A total of 169 children aged 0-16 years were seen duringthe study period. Seventy-one (42%) had corneal diseases.Their ages ranged from 2 weeks to 16 years; mean 7.5 yearsand SD 3.1 years. The aetiology of corneal diseases weretrauma in 23 (32.4%) vernal kerato-conjunctivitis in 16 (22.54%), congenital eye diseases in 12 (16.9%), corneal infections in 12 (16.9%), corneal scarring from unknown causes in 5 (7.04%) and corneal dystrophy/degenerations in 3 patients. Ten patients (14%) became bilaterally blind while 22 patients (31%) suffered unilateral blindness, withcongenital diseases and trauma being the causes respectively.Vernal kerato-conjunctivitis was a major cause of ocularmorbidity. Conclusion: Bilateral blindness is no longer due to preventablecauses like measles, ophthalmia neonatorum and keratomalacia. The use of harmful traditional eye medication is a contributory factor to the severity of vernal keratoconjunctivitis

Improving sanitation through sanitation centre: a case study of Chediya, Nigeria

Sanitation coverage is generally low in Nigeria especially in rural areas where only about a third of rural population has access to sanitary means of excreta disposal. One of the options that have been implemented in the country is the SaniCentre concept which was introduced in 1995. The concept at inception was instrumental to accelerated sanitation promotion but this could not be sustained as indicated in the assessment of SaniCentres conducted in 1998 which prompted the refining of strategies for delivery thereby leading to the introduction of privately managed SaniCentres. Chediya SaniCentre is one of those privately managed centres that has been functional since establishment in 2004 and has contributed to improving sanitation uptakes in many communities. Not withstanding the low level of functionality of SaniCentres, the privately managed centres possess a lot of potentials that could be harnessed for scaling up sanitation development as demonstrated by Chediya SaniCentre

A community based health and hygiene model

The first democratic government in 1994 inherited an estimated backlog of 12 million South Africans mainly rural without access to safe water and another 21 million without sanitation. By 1999, 5.6 million rural people and 4 million urban people had improved water and sanitation access. Despite these achievements, the current Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry noted that at the current rate of delivery it could take the sector 20 years to attain the sector’s goals of providing potable water to the rural populace. The government has embarked on a programme of accelerating the provision of adequate sanitation for all by 2010

Unilateral Idiopathic Dilated Episcleral Vein with Secondary Open Angle Glaucoma (Radius–Maumenee Syndrome) in an African – A case report and literature review

A 69-year-old woman was seen in the eye clinic of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital [OOUTH], Sagamu, south-west Nigeria, with irritation in the right eye due to a vascular nasal pterygium, but asymptomatic in her left eye. Examination revealed dilated and tortuous conjunctival and episcleral vessels in her left eye with no apparent cause. She later developed secondary glaucoma in that eye. A diagnosis of left idiopathic dilated episcleral vein with secondary open angle glaucoma [Radius Maumenee syndrome] was made. She was treated both medically and surgically. This rare case in an African woman is presented in order to highlight the possibility of secondary vascular glaucoma in a patient with chronic redness of the eye without symptoms of discomfort or allergy. Keywords: idiopathic, dilated episcleral veins, secondary glaucoma, NigeriaNigerian Journal of Ophthalmology Vol. 16 (1) 2008: pp. 20-2

Evaluating the post-implementation effectiveness of selected household water treatment technologies in rural Kenya

Water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases are responsible for 7% of all deaths and 8% of all disability adjusted live years (DALYs), as well as the loss of 320 million days of productivity in developing countries. Though laboratory and field trials have shown that household water treatment (HWT) technologies can quickly improve the microbiological quality of drinking water, questions remain about the effectiveness of these technologies under real-world conditions. Furthermore, the value that rural communities attach to HWT is unknown, and it is not clear why, in spite of the fact that rural African households need household water treatment (HWT) most, they are the least likely to use them. The primary objective of this multi-level study was to assess the post-implementation effectiveness of selected HWT technologies in the Nyanza and Western Provinces of Kenya. The study was carried out in the rainy season between March and May, 2011 using a mixed method approach. Evidence was collected in order to build a case of evidence of HWT effectiveness or ineffectiveness in a post-implementation context. A quasi-experimental design was used first to conduct a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey in 474 households in ten intervention and five control villages (Chapter 3). The survey assessed the context in which household water treatment was being used in the study villages to provide real-world information for assessing the effectiveness of the technologies. An interviewer-administered questionnaire elicited information about the water, sanitation and hygiene-related KAP of the study communities. A household water treatment (HWT) survey (Chapter 4) was carried out in the same study households and villages as the KAP study, using a semi-structured questionnaire to gather HWT adoption, compliance and sustained use-related information to provide insight into the perceived value the study households attach to HWT technologies, and their likelihood of adoption of and compliance with these technologies. The drinking water quality of 171 (one quarter of those surveyed during KAP) randomly selected households was determined and tracked from source to the point of use (Chapter 5). This provided insights into HWT effectiveness by highlighting the need for HWT (as indicated by source water quality) and the effect of the study households’ KAP on drinking water quality (as indicated by the stored water quality). Physico-chemical and microbiological water quality of the nineteen improved and unimproved sources used by the study households was determined, according to the World Health Organisation guidelines. The microbiological quality of 291 water samples in six intervention and five control villages was determined from source to the point-of-use (POU) using the WHO and Sphere Drinking Water Quality Guidelines. An observational study design was then used to assess the post-implementation effectiveness of the technologies used in 37 households in five intervention villages (Chapter 6). Three assessments were carried out to determine the changes in the microbiological quality of 107 drinking water samples before treatment (from collection container) and after treatment (from storage container) by the households. The criteria used to assess the performance of the technologies were microbial efficacy, robustness and performance in relation to sector standards. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) was then carried out in the HWT effectiveness study households to assess the technologies’ ability to reduce the users’ exposure to and probability of infection with water-borne pathogens (Chapter 7). The KAP survey showed that the intervention and control communities did not differ significantly in 18 out of 20 socio-economic variables that could potentially be influenced by the structured manner of introducing HWT into the intervention villages. The majority of the intervention group (IG) and the control group (CG) were poor or very poor on the basis of household assets they owned. The predominant level of education for almost two-thirds of the IG and CG respondents was primary school (completed and non-completed). Though very few were unemployed in IG (8.07%) and CG (14.29%), the two groups of respondents were predominantly engaged in subsistence farming — a low income occupation. With regard to practices, both groups had inadequate access to water and sanitation with only one in two of the households in both IG and CG using improved water sources as their main drinking water source in the non-rainy season. One in ten households in both study groups possessed an improved sanitation facility, though the CG was significantly more likely to practice open defecation than the IG. The self-reported use of soap in both study groups was mainly for bathing and not for handwashing after faecal contact with adult or child faeces. Despite the study groups' knowledge about diarrhoea, both groups showed a disconnection between their knowledge about routes of contamination and barriers to contamination. The most frequent reason for not treating water was the perceived safety of rain water in both the IG and CG.The HWT adoption survey revealed poor storage and water-handling practices in both IG and CG, and that very few respondents knew how to use the HWT technologies correctly: The IG and CG were similar in perceived value attached to household water treatment. All HWT technologies had a lower likelihood of adoption compared to the likelihood of compliance indicators in both IG and CG. The users’ perceptions about efficacy, time taken and ease of use of the HWT technologies lowered the perceived value attached to the technologies. The assessment of the drinking water quality used by the study communities indicated that the improved sources had a lower geometric mean E. coli and total coliform count than the unimproved sources. Both categories of sources were of poor microbiological quality and both exceeded the Sphere Project (2004) and the WHO (2008) guidelines for total coliforms and E. Coli respectively The study communities’ predominant drinking water sources, surface water and rainwater were faecally contaminated (geometric mean E. coli load of 388.1±30.45 and 38.9±22.35 cfu/100 ml respectively) and needed effective HWT. The improved sources were significantly more likely than the unimproved sources to have a higher proportion of samples that complied with the WHO drinking water guidelines at source, highlighting the importance of providing improved water sources. The lowest levels of faecal contamination were observed between the collection and storage points which coincided with the stage at which HWT is normally applied, suggesting an HWT effect on the water quality. All water sources had nitrate and turbidity levels that exceeded the WHO stipulated guidelines, while some of the improved and unimproved sources had higher than permissible levels of lead, manganese and aluminium. The water source category and the mouth type of the storage container were predictive of the stored water quality. The active treater households had a higher percentage of samples that complied with WHO water quality guidelines for E. coli than inactive treater households in both improved and unimproved source categories. In inactive treater households, 65% of storage container water samples from the improved sources complied with the WHO guidelines in comparison to 72% of the stored water samples in the active treater households. However the differences were not statistically significant. The HWT technologies did not attain sector standards of effective performance: in descending order, the mean log10 reduction in E. coli concentrations after treatment of water from unimproved sources was PUR (log₁₀ 2.0), ceramic filters (log₁₀ 1.57), Aquatab (log₁₀ 1.06) and Waterguard (log₁₀ 0.44). The mean log10 reduction in E. coli after treatment of water from improved sources was Aquatab (log₁₀ 2.3), Waterguard (log₁₀ 1.43), PUR (log₁₀ 0.94) and ceramic filters (log₁₀ 0.16). The HWT technologies reduced the user’s daily exposure to water-borne pathogens from both unimproved and improved drinking water sources. The mean difference in exposure after treatment of water from unimproved sources was ceramic filter (log₁₀ 2.1), Aquatab (log₁₀ 1.9), PUR (log₁₀ 1.5) and Waterguard (log₁₀ 0.9), in descending order. The mean probability of infection with water-borne pathogens (using E.coli as indicator) after consumption of treated water from both improved and unimproved sources was reduced in users of all the HWT technologies. The difference in reduction between technologies was not statistically significant. The study concluded that despite the apparent need for HWT, the study households’ inadequate knowledge, poor attitudes and unhygienic practices make it unlikely that they will use the technologies effectively to reduce microbial concentrations to the standards stipulated by accepted drinking water quality guidelines. The structured method of HWT promotion in the intervention villages had not resulted in more hygienic water and sanitation KAP in the IG compared to the CG, or significant differences in likelihood of adoption and compliance with the assessed HWT technologies. Despite attaching a high perceived value to HWT, insufficient knowledge about how to use the HWT technologies and user concerns about factors such as ease of use, accessibility and time to use will impact negatively on adoption and compliance with HWT, notwithstanding their efficacy during field trials. Even though external support had been withdrawn, the assessed HWT technologies were able improve the quality of household drinking water and reduce the exposure and risk of water-borne infections. However, the improvement in water quality and reduction in risk did not attain sector guidelines, highlighting the need to address the attitudes, practices and design criteria identified in this study which limit the adoption, compliance and effective use of these technologies. These findings have implications for HWT interventions, emphasising the need for practice-based behavioural support alongside technical support

Eye Injuries among Road Traffic Accident Victims in Ogun State, Nigeria

Aim: To investigate the types of eye injuries seen among road traffic accident (RTA) victims managed at a referral hospital in Ogun State, Nigeria.Materials and Method: All RTA victims who presented at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) between July 2004 and June 2005; their eyes were examined by an ophthalmologist for any form of injury. The biodata, cause and type of eye injury, cause of accident, position ofvictim in the vehicle, use of seat belt by victim, and treatment offered were documented using a questionnaire.Results: Thirty-five (2.7%) of the RTA victims (1314) during the study period had various forms of eye injury. The majority were male (65.7%); 80% were between 20 and 40 years. The victims included 7 technical workers (20%); 6 students (17.1%); 5 traders (14.3%); 5 office workers (14.3%); and 5 drivers (14.3%). Only 24% of the drivers and 8% of frontseat passengers had used a seat belt. The majority of the victims, 23 (65.7%), had a combination of extraocular and anterior segment injuries . Lid injury was the most common extraocular injury 29 (90.6%), followed by laceration (34.4%), oedema (30.2%) and bruising (25%); while themost common injury of the anterior segment was subconjunctival haemorrhage 23 (85.2%). Most of the patients, 28(80%), presented within 24 hours of injury.Conclusions: The majority of eye injuries from RTAs seen at OOUTH, Sagamu were mild and mainly found in the extraocular and anterior segments of the eye.Key words: eye injury, road traffic accidents, anterior segment, extraocular segment, posterior segmen

Think globally, act locally: community action planning critical to attaining global sanitation targets

The sanitation programme in Kadadaba community is part of the Federal Government of Nigeria/UNICEF/ DFID programme in Zamfara state implemented by the Zamfara Rural Water and Sanitation Agency and the Maru Local Government Authority. It adopted a community–based integrated sanitation and hygiene approach with emphasis on community involvement. Kadadaba is a predominantly rural village in Northern Nigeria. Despite its socio-economic challenges, Kadadaba community in three months moved from a 48% sanitary pit latrine status to a 100% sanitation coverage and 100% borehole functionality which has been maintained. Maru LGA supported the community with development of community action plans and targets. This has resulted in amongst other things, the improvement in sanitation related status and demand in Kadadaba and environs, with the achievement of 100% sanitation coverage with attendant hygiene supportive behavior in other communities. This paper aims to share the best practices and lessons learnt from this case study