Maternal micronutrient status and decreased growth of Zambian infants born during and after the maize price increases resulting from the southern African drought of 2001-2002.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects on maternal micronutrient status and infant growth of the increased maize prices that resulted from the southern African drought of 2001-2002. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study. SETTING: A maternal and child health clinic in Lusaka, Zambia. SUBJECTS: Maternal and infant health and nutrition data and maternal plasma were being collected for a study of breast-feeding and postpartum health. Samples and data were analysed according to whether they were collected before (June to December 2001), during (January 2002 to April 2003) or after (May 2003 to January 2004) the period of increased maize price. Season and maternal HIV status were controlled for in analyses. RESULTS: Maize price increases were associated with decreased maternal plasma vitamin A during pregnancy (P = 0.028) and vitamin E postpartum (P = 0.042), with the lowest values among samples collected after May 2003 (vitamin A: 0.96 micromol l(-1), 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-1.09, n = 38; vitamin E: 30.8 micromol mmol(-1) triglycerides, 95% CI 27.2-34.8, n = 64) compared with before January 2002 (vitamin A: 1.03 micromol l(-1), 95% CI 0.93-1.12, n = 104; vitamin E: 38.9 micromol mmol(-1) triglycerides, 95% CI 34.5-43.8, n = 47). There were no significant effects of sampling date on maternal weight, haemoglobin or acute-phase proteins and only marginal effects on infant weight. Infant length at 6 and 16 weeks of age decreased progressively throughout the study (P-values for time of data collection were 0.51 at birth, 0.051 at 6 weeks and 0.026 at 16 weeks). CONCLUSIONS: The results show modest effects of the maize price increases on maternal micronutrient status. The most serious consequence of the price increases is likely to be the increased stunting among infants whose mothers experienced high maize prices while pregnant. During periods of food shortages it might be advisable to provide micronutrient supplements even to those who are less food-insecure

Environmental Challenge and Water Access in Africa: Empirical Evidences based on Nigeria’s Households Survey

One of the environmental challenges is the effect on water availability and water-related diseases accounts for 80 percent of sicknesses in developing countries. Despite this, there has remained increasing research on poverty reduction, with little emphasis on water access particularly in Africa. Using micro-level data from survey conducted by the World Bank and National Bureau of Statistics, covering over 5,000 households and 27,000 household members across the 36 States of Nigeria, the study formulates an econometric model. The results from logistic regression analysis show that the main determinants of households access to water include: age of the household members, the marital status, the sector where the household member works, the type of employment, the number of working hours, access to informal means of financial credit and the income level of the household, among others. Some recommendations on how to boost water access of households are made in the study

Environment challenges in Africa: further dimensions to the trade, MNCs and energy debate

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkage between environmental challenges, multinational corporations (MNCs) activities, trade and energy in Africa; and further elaborate on the role of institutions, as an intervening variable. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the authors extended the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model by including indicators of the presence of MNCs, trade and energy in the basic EKC model that has measures of environmental pollution (CO2), economic growth (gross domestic product per capita) and its squared value. The role of institutions was also considered and included as an inter-mediating variable. This model was tested on a sample of 27 African countries, for the period 1996-2010. The systems GMM was applied for the empirical analysis. This approach was aimed at circumventing the possibility of reverse causality and endogenous explanatory variables-such as institutions. Findings – Trade and MNCs’ activities may not have much contemporaneous impact on the environment. However, their lagged values have adverse and significant influence on the current values of environmental challenge. This implies that environmental policies regarding trade and MNCs require time response lag. Energy was significant only at contemporaneous value but not at its lagged value. Institutional development helps to suppress the negative excesses (like pollution) from the activities of trade, MNCs and energy, and consequently reduce environmental pollution. Originality/value – This paper included the role of institutions in the environmental pollution, trade, MNCs and energy debate. Empirical studies in this regard have inadvertently excluded this variable, but have, at best, included it as part of policy recommendations

Beyond the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Africa: Evidence from Panel Cointegration

The main objective of this study is to establish the applicability of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in explaining the relationship between environmental pollution and development in Africa. The EKC has been used to explain such relationships in a variety of contexts, yet rarely applied in Africa, despite it hosting both the poorest countries in the world, 60% of those with extreme environmental pollution vulnerability and having a distinct socio-economic and institutional profile that tests the validity of such a model. This paper describes an empirical model that applies the EKC hypothesis and its modifications to 50 African countries, using data from 1995–2010. The empirical analysis suggests that there is a long-term relationship between CO2 and particulate matter emissions with per capita income and other variables, including institutional factors and trade, leading to specific recommendations on future strategies for sustainable development in an African context

HCI as a means to prosociality in the economy

HCI research often involves intervening in the economic lives of people, but researchers only rarely give explicit consideration to what actually constitutes prosociality in the economy. Much has been said previously regarding sustainability but this has largely focused on environmental rather than interpersonal relations. This paper provides an analysis of how prosocial HCI has been discussed and continues to be defined as a research field. Based on a corpus of published works, we describe a variety of genres of work relating to prosocial HCI. Key intellectual differences are explored, including the epistemological and ethical positions involved in designing for prosocial outcomes as well as how HCI researchers posit economic decision-making. Finally, emerging issues and opportunities for further debate and collaboration are discussed in turn

Effects on mortality of a nutritional intervention for malnourished HIV-infected adults referred for antiretroviral therapy: a randomised controlled trial.

Malnourished HIV-infected African adults are at high risk of early mortality after starting antiretroviral therapy (ART). We hypothesized that short-course, high-dose vitamin and mineral supplementation in lipid nutritional supplements would decrease mortality

Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers to Guide Clinical Management of Pneumonia in African Children

Background Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children globally. Clinical algorithms remain suboptimal for distinguishing severe pneumonia from other causes of respiratory distress such as malaria or distinguishing bacterial pneumonia and pneumonia from others causes, such as viruses. Molecular tools could improve diagnosis and management. Methods We conducted a mass spectrometry–based proteomic study to identify and validate markers of severity in 390 Gambian children with pneumonia (n = 204) and age-, sex-, and neighborhood-matched controls (n = 186). Independent validation was conducted in 293 Kenyan children with respiratory distress (238 with pneumonia, 41 with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and 14 with both). Predictive value was estimated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results Lipocalin 2 (Lpc-2) was the best protein biomarker of severe pneumonia (AUC, 0.71 [95% confidence interval, .64–.79]) and highly predictive of bacteremia (78% [64%–92%]), pneumococcal bacteremia (84% [71%–98%]), and “probable bacterial etiology” (91% [84%–98%]). These results were validated in Kenyan children with severe malaria and respiratory distress who also met the World Health Organization definition of pneumonia. The combination of Lpc-2 and haptoglobin distinguished bacterial versus malaria origin of respiratory distress with high sensitivity and specificity in Gambian children (AUC, 99% [95% confidence interval, 99%–100%]) and Kenyan children (82% [74%–91%]). Conclusions Lpc-2 and haptoglobin can help discriminate the etiology of clinically defined pneumonia and could be used to improve clinical management. These biomarkers should be further evaluated in prospective clinical studies

Risk factors and milk yield losses associated with lameness in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle

Weekly locomotion scores on a scale of 1 to 5 were used to investigate the relationship between cattle lameness, management systems and the impact of lameness on milk production. The data were 14 026 locomotion scores from 248 Holstein-Friesian cows. Cows were managed in two groups, XE (high-concentrate feed and housed indoors all year) and XM (low-concentrate feed and outdoors in summer). Analysis was performed using residual maximum likelihood. Results indicated that the most significant variables affecting locomotion were time of year when the animal was locomotion scored and management group. Cows scored during February and August had increased locomotion problems. Cows in the more intensively managed group had significantly poorer locomotion compared with those in the more extensive group. Older animals were more susceptible to lameness than heifers. Body weight, body condition score and days in milk (DIM) also accounted for significant variation in locomotion score. Poor locomotion was associated with a significant reduction in the milk yield of later lactation cows. There was a significant difference in the shape of the lactation curve depending on whether or not the cow was lame during lactation. Average persistency was greater for the group of cows never lame throughout lactation compared with those lame before 60 DIM.</p