Uptake of home-based voluntary HIV testing in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Improving access to HIV testing is a key priority in scaling up HIV treatment and prevention services. Home-based voluntary counselling and testing (HBT) as an approach to delivering wide-scale HIV testing is explored here

Religious Pluralism, Conflict and HIV/Aids Education in Refugee-Affected Regions of North-Western Kenya

This paper examines how multi-religious factors influence the teaching and learning of HIV/AIDS education in refugee schools based on a qualitative study conducted in refugee-affected communities in North-Western Kenya. The study involved a total of 3 primary schools from Kakuma Refugee Camp (KRC) and 3 from the host community. A sample of 617 respondents of diverse nationalities, including 356 male and 160 female pupils, was used. The study utilized semi-structured interviews, observation, FGDs, documentary analysis and drawings to generate data. The findings reveal that, first; traditional ethnic cultures interacted with religion to influence the nature and level of interaction between boys and girls during HIV/AIDS education lessons, thereby determining the process of learning. Whereas Somali Muslim pupils sat and worked in same gender clusters, Christian Sudanese and Turkana boys and girls interacted across genders more freely. Consequently, the cultural and religious tendencies denied Muslim Somali boys and girls an opportunity to work together as allies in addressing pertinent and effective strategies in HIV/AIDS education. Further, unlike the Christian Turkana and Ugandan girls who seemed open and outgoing in their participation in HIV/AIDS education activities, Somali and Ethiopian Muslim girls remained quiet, reserved and shy as a way of showing respect to male teachers and pupils. In this regard, Kenyan Christian teachers interpreted the behaviour of Somali and Ethiopian Muslim girls to mean disobedience and hence, tended to exclude the girls during classroom activities.  Because religion determined the teacher’s interpretation of the content,  pupils received different and sometimes conflicting messages on similar topics depending on the teacher’s religious background. It was therefore concluded that religious beliefs influenced the learning of HIV/AIDS education in refugee schools in a complex manner, which teachers need to understand clearly  for them to be able to enhance inclusive and responsive learning Keywords: Religious Pluralism, Conflict, HIV/AIDS Education, Refugee-Affected Regions, North-Western Keny

Resilience assessment for interdependent urban infrastructure systems using dynamic network flow models

Critical infrastructure systems are becoming increasingly interdependent, which can exacerbate the impacts of disruptive events through cascading failures, hindered asset repairs and network congestion. Current resilience assessment methods fall short of fully capturing such interdependency effects as they tend to model asset reliability and network flows separately and often rely on static flow assignment methods. In this paper, we develop an integrated, dynamic modelling and simulation framework that combines network and asset representations of infrastructure systems and models the optimal response to disruptions using a rolling planning horizon. The framework considers dependencies pertaining to failure propagation, system-of-systems architecture and resources required for operating and repairing assets. Stochastic asset failure is captured by a scenario tree generation algorithm whereas the redistribution of network flows and the optimal deployment of repair resources are modelled using a minimum cost flow approach. A case study on London’s metro and electric power networks shows how the proposed methodology can be used to assess the resilience of city-scale infrastructure systems to a local flooding incident and estimate the value of the resilience loss triangle for different levels of hazard exposure and repair capabilities

Résumé des résultats des enquêtes de base niveau ménage : site de Kaffrine, Sénégal

Ce rapport présente les résultats des enquêtes de base conduites au niveau des ménages de sept villages du site de Kaffrine (Bassin arachidier Sud, Sénégal) dans le cadre du programme de recherche du CGIAR sur le Changement Climatique, l’Agriculture et la Sécurité alimentaire. L’objectif de ces enquêtes était de de collecter toutes les données et informations sur des indicateurs clés de base concernant les ménages notamment les moyens de subsistance, l’agriculture et la gestion des ressources naturelles, les besoins d’information sur le climat et la gestion des risques, et les pratiques d’atténuation et d’adaptation

The Relationship between Distance and Availability of Material Resources for Basic Emergency Obstetric Care in Primary Health Care Facilities in Homabay and Siaya Counties, Kenya

In Kenya, pregnancy and childbirth complications are among the leading causes of mortality among women, with an estimated 488 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births which is well above the millennium development goal (MDG) target of 147 per 100,000 by 2015. The perinatal mortality rate stands at 37/1000 live births. Nyanza region is among the county’s leading with high MMR at 670/100,000 live births (KDHS, 2009) which is higher than the national average. The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between distance of primary health care facilities from the distribution point and the availability of material resources for basic emergency obstetric care (BEmOC) in Siaya and Homabay counties in Kenya. Various studies have been conducted focusing on distance from the community to the health facility as a contributor to increased rates of maternal mortality and complications. A literature gap exists thus motivating the author to consider other possible causes including relationship between distance and availability of material resources in primary health care facilities from their point of distribution in-order to provide an understanding of the extent to which these factors affect the quality provision of basic emergency obstetric care towards reduction of maternal mortality and disability. The availability of material resources for basic EmOC is important in reducing maternal death and improving women’s health in general. This can be achieved if primary health care facilities have equipment, supplies and drugs available. With the current initiative of beyond zero campaign by the first lady in Kenya on reducing maternal deaths, efforts should be made to ensure that these material resources are adequately available and accessible to women when they need them irrespective of the distance of health facilities from the distribution point. However, adequate drug financing from the government, flexible and supportive drug policies should be in place to achieve this goal. Keywords: Kenya-Maternal Health-Basic Emergency Obstetric Care-Life saving-Primary Health Care

Diarrhea in young children from low-income countries leads to large-scale alterations in intestinal microbiota composition

Acknowledgments This work was funded in part by the William and Melinda Gates Foundation, award 42917 to JPN and OCS; US National Institutes of Health grants 5R01HG005220 to HCB, 5R01HG004885 to MP; US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award DGE0750616 to JNP; AWW and JP are funded by The Wellcome Trust (Grant No. WT098051).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Economic analysis of biogas production from pineapple waste as alternative source of energy in a pineapple processing plant, case of Del Monte Kenya Limited

This paper evaluates the economic aspect of utilizing biogas from pineapple waste as a source of energy in a pineapple processing plant, in the in the case of Del Monte Kenya Limited (DMKL). Del Monte Kenya Limited, a known exporter of canned pineapple, lies on approximately 10,000 acres of pineapple plantations. The company’s processing capacity of 100,000 tons of pineapple annually produces approximately 23,000 tons of pineapple waste per year. Currently, these wastes are sold to local farmers as animal feed at $20 per ton. A study was conducted at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) that revealed that a ton of pineapple waste has the potential to generate 7.41 m3/day of biogas. A cost-comparative analysis was conducted between employing an anaerobic digester to treat pineapple wastes to generate biogas for usage within the plant and selling the waste to locals for feeding the livestock. The results revealed that it is more economical to use waste to generate biogas as an alternative source of energy in the processing lines. The net present value (NPV) of$1,939,019, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 16%, and a payback period of 4 years were estimated. The positive value of NPV shows that the project is viable

Cash Management Techniques Adopted By Small And Medium Level Enterprises In Eldoret Town, Kenya

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cash management techniques adopted by small and medium level enterprises in Eldoret town. The study was carried out in 17 selected SMEs all capturing 108 personnel distributed among the said SMEs equitably. The researcher sampled 52 respondents through simple random sampling and stratified sampling to help arrive at better results and minimize research cost. Data from primary sources were then analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The study concluded that cash management is a working capital management component that contributes to a great extend on survival or failure of SMEs in Kenya. Among the cash management techniques commonly used are speeding cash collection and delayed payment of creditors and they did not have a direct significance with SME performance. However optimum cash held significantly, and positively influenced SMEs performance, SMEs used cheques, cash receipt, and petty cash to control cash movement and finally non financial measures of performance did not have a significant relationship with SME performance. Key Words: Cash Management, Techniques, Small and Medium Entreprise