Search results for: poor communities

Authors: Khethiwe Mtshali, Zamantungwa T. H. Khumalo, Stanford Kwenda, Ismail Arshad, Oriel M. M. Thekisoe

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Ecologically, the gut, mammary glands and bloodstream consist of distinct microbial communities of commensals, mutualists and pathogens, forming a complex ecosystem of niches. The by-products derived from these body sites i.e. faeces, milk and blood, respectively, have many uses in rural communities where they aid in the facilitation of day-to-day household activities and occasional rituals. Thus, although livestock rearing plays a vital role in the sustenance of the livelihoods of rural communities, it may serve as a potent reservoir of different pathogenic organisms that could have devastating health and economic implications. This study aimed to simultaneously explore the microbial profiles of corresponding faecal, milk and blood samples from lactating cows using 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing. Bacterial communities were inferred through the Divisive Amplicon Denoising Algorithm 2 (DADA2) pipeline coupled with SILVA database v138. All downstream analyses were performed in R v3.6.1. Alpha-diversity metrics showed significant differences between faeces and blood, faeces and milk, but did not vary significantly between blood and milk (Kruskal-Wallis, P < 0.05). Beta-diversity metrics on Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) and Non-Metric Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) clustered samples by type, suggesting that microbial communities of the studied niches are significantly different (PERMANOVA, P < 0.05). A number of taxa were significantly differentially abundant (DA) between groups based on the Wald test implemented in the DESeq2 package (Padj < 0.01). The majority of the DA taxa were significantly enriched in faeces than in milk and blood, except for the genus Anaplasma, which was significantly enriched in blood and was, in turn, the most abundant taxon overall. A total of 30 phyla, 74 classes, 156 orders, 243 families and 408 genera were obtained from the overall analysis. The most abundant phyla obtained between the three body sites were Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Proteobacteria. A total of 58 genus-level taxa were simultaneously detected between the sample groups, while bacterial signatures of at least 8 of these occurred concurrently in corresponding faeces, milk and blood samples from the same group of animals constituting a pool. The important taxa identified in this study could be categorized into four potentially pathogenic clusters: i) arthropod-borne; ii) food-borne and zoonotic; iii) mastitogenic and; iv) metritic and abortigenic. This study provides insight into the microbial composition of bovine faeces, milk, and blood and its extent of overlapping. It further highlights the potential risk of disease occurrence and transmission between the animals and the inhabitants of the sampled rural community, pertaining to their unsanitary practices associated with the use of cattle by-products.

Keywords: microbial profiling, 16S rRNA, NGS, feces, milk, blood, lactating cows, small-scale farmers

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Authors: Bui Duc Sinh

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Ecotourism in national parks seemed to be one of the options in the conservation of the natural resources and to improve the living condition of local communities. However, ecotourism development will be useless if it lacks the perception and support of local communities and appropriate ecotourism strategies. The aims of this study were to measure residents’ perception and satisfaction towards ecotourism impacts and their attitudes for ecotourism development in Cuc Phuong National Park; to assess the current ecotourism strategies based on ecotourism criteria and then to provide recommendations on ecotourism development strategies. The primary data were collected through personal observations, in-depth interviews with residents and national park staffs, and from surveys on households in all of the five communes in the Cuc Phuong National Park. The results depicted that local communities were aware of ecotourism impacts and had positive attitudes toward ecotourism development, and were satisfied of ecotourism development. However, higher perception rate was found on specific groups such as the young, the high income and educated, and those with jobs related to ecotourism. The study revealed the issues of concerns about the current ecotourism development strategies in Cuc Phuong National Park. The major hindrances for ecotourism development were lack of local participation and unattractive ecotourism services. It was also suggested that Cuc Phuong National Park should use ecotourism criteria to implement ecotourism activities sustainably and to harmonize the sharing of benefits amongst the stakeholders. The approaches proposed were to: create local employment through reengineering, improve the ecotourism quality, appropriate tourism benefits to the stakeholders, and carry out education and training programs. Furthermore, the results of the study helped tour operators and tourism promoters aware the real concerns, issues on current ecotourism activities in Cuc Phuong National Park.

Keywords: ecotourism, ecotourism impact, local community, national park

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Authors: Serena Clark, Katriona O'Sullivan, Kevin Marshall, Mac MacLachlan

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This paper explores the United Nation's sustainable development goals (SDGs) alongside digital poverty and proposes that digital poverty should be a new SDG. The SDGs concentrate on 17 key areas, including economic growth, reducing inequalities, climate action, ending poverty, gender equality, and quality education. Many of the plans to fulfill these goals involve the creation and adaptation of new technologies. As we have seen with COVID-19, access to these technologies has determined communities and societies' ability to respond to these challenges in both developed and developing nations. For example, the transition to online education due to the lockdowns had a detrimental effect on children who did not have access to technology to provide continuity in their educational development. Digitalization and emerging technologies, especially information and communication technologies (ICTs), can help address each goal. Digital poverty and exclusion exacerbate the gap between rich and poor within our societies and internationally, and COVID-19 has further highlighted these issues. Closing this gap can support achieving the SDGs. If access to digital technologies measure society's response and resilience in addressing the challenges the SDGs seek to resolve, should reducing digital poverty be an SDG of its own? This paper will explore this question, arguing that digital poverty should be an independent SDG working alongside and supporting the achievement of the other 17 SDGs.

Keywords: digital poverty, digital exclusion, United Nations sustainable development goals, information and communication technologies

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Authors: G. Fouché, J. N. Eloff, K. Wellington

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Acaricides are commonly used to control ticks but are toxic, harmful to the environment and too expensive to resource-limited farmers. Traditionally, many communities in South Africa rely on a wide range of indigenous practices to keep their livestock healthy. One of these health care practices includes the use of medicinal plants and this offers an alternative to conventional medicine. An investigation was conducted at the CSIR in South Africa, and selected indigenous plants used in communities were scientifically evaluated for the management of ticks in animals. 17 plants were selected from 239 plants used traditionally in South Africa. Two different organic extracts were prepared from the 17 samples, resulting in 34 plant samples. These were tested for efficacy against two tick species, namely Rhipicephalus microplus and Rhipicephalus turanicus. The plant extracts were also screened against Vero cells and most were found to have low cytotoxicity. This study has shown that there is potential for the development of botanicals as natural acaricides against ticks that are non-toxic and environmentally benign.

Keywords: South Africa, ticks, plant extracts, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus

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Authors: Temitope Adefunsho Olatoye, Julius Olabode Elega

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Raising agricultural productivity is an important policy goal for governments and development agencies, and this is central to growth, income distribution, improved food security, and poverty alleviation among practitioners. This study analyzed the productivity and poverty status among users of improved sorghum varieties in Kano State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of 131 sorghum farmers who were users of improved sorghum varieties. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive (frequency distribution and percentage) and inferential (productivity index and FGT model) statistics. The result of the socioeconomic characteristics of the sorghum farmers showed a mean age of 40 years, with about 93.13% of the sorghum farmers being male. Also, as indicated by the result, the majority (82.44%) of the farmers were married, with most of them having qur’anic education with a mean farm size of 3.6 ha, as reported in the study area. Furthermore, the result showed that the mean farming experience of the sorghum farmers in the study area was 19 years, with an average monthly income of about ₦48,794, as reported in the study area. The result of the productivity index showed a ratio of 192,977kg/ha, while the result of poverty status shows that 62.88% were in the non-poor category, 21.21% were poor, and 15.91% were very poor, respectively. The result also showed that the incidence of poverty for sorghum farmers was 16%, indicating that the incidence of poverty was prevalent in the study area. Based on the findings of this study, it was therefore recommended that seed companies should facilitate the spread of improved sorghum varieties as it has an impact on the productivity and poverty status of sorghum farmers in the study area.

Keywords: Foster Greer Thorbecke model, improved sorghum varieties, productivity, poverty status

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Authors: Faith Samkange, Juliet Chipumuro, Henry Wanyama

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Business development and entrepreneurship constitute a major part of economic and human development for many countries within the Southern Africa Development Communities (SADC). While a marked increase in entrepreneurship activity has been registered, more than 70% of these business enterprises are still failing particularly in their conceptual years. One of the major reasons for this failure is that project process trends have tended to be fragmented and linear in approach while focusing primarily on isolated articulation of development aspects such as marketing, operations, accounting and human resources management with limited integration. Given the complexity of environmental, economic and human development issues in the SADC region, a multi-disciplinary, transformative, systematic and coordinated approach towards entrepreneurship development may be a more useful approach. This paper develops a proposed conceptual framework for an innovative and sustainable food production and food consumption Agritech entrepreneurship project in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa based on a systematic review of existing literature. A thematic analysis of the literature reviewed is applied to develop this theoretical contribution to knowledge. The conceptual framework will be tested in a research driven intervention project designed to improve the quality of life for marginalized indigenous African communities by addressing poverty alleviation, unemployment and gender inequality as stipulated in the global sustainable development goals by the United Nations in 2018.

Keywords: innovative entrepreneurship, sustainability, food production and consumption, marginalised communities, poverty alleviation

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Authors: Ji-Suk Kim, Dong-Pil Kim, Kee-Rae Gang, Yoon Ho Choi

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This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of butterfly communities according to the habitat characteristics of Korean veins. The survey sites were 12 mountains located in the vein, and 12~30 quadrats (200 in total) were set. The species richness and biodiversity were different according to land use type. Two types of land use (forest and graveyard) showed lower species diversity index values ​​than other land use types. The species abundance was low in the forest and graveyards, and grasslands, forest tops, cultivated areas and urban areas showed relatively high species richness. The altitude was not statistically significant with the number of species of butterflies and biodiversity index. The degree of canopy closure showed a negative correlation. As a result of interspecific correlation analysis, it was confirmed that there was a very high correlation (R2=0.746) between Lycaena phlaeas and Pseudozizeeria maha argia, Choaspes benjaminii japonica and Argyronome ruslana.

Keywords: land use type, species diversity index, correlation, canopy closure

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Authors: Motahare Aali, Fatemeh Tajik

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Here, we investigate the sensitivity the Casimir force and consequently dynamical actuation of a three-layer microswitch to some ambient conditions. In fact, we have considered the effect of optical properties on the stable operation of the microswitch for both good (e.g. metals) and poor conductors via a three layer Casimir oscillator. Indeed, gold (Au) has been chosen as a good conductor which is widely used for Casimir force measurements, and highly doped conductive silicon carbide (SiC) has been considered as a poor conductor which is a promising material for device operating under harsh environments. Also, the intervening stratum is considered ethanol or water. It is also supposed that the microswitches are frictionless and autonomous. Using reduction factor diagrams and bifurcation curves, it has been shown how performance of the microswitches is sensitive to temperature and intervening stratum, moreover it is investigated how the conductivity of the components can affect this sensitivity.

Keywords: Casimir force, optical properties, Lifshitz theory, dielectric function

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Authors: Wei-Kuang Liu, Ya-Hsu Chiang

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In the coming of an aging society, the issues of living quality, health care, and social security for the elderly have been gradually taken seriously. In order to maintain favorable living condition, urban societies are also facing the challenge of disasters caused by extreme climate change. However, in the practice of disaster prevention, elderly people are always weak due to their physiological conditions. That is to say, in the planning of resilient urbanism, the aging society is relatively in need of more care. Thus, this research aims to map areas where have high-density elderly population and fragile environmental condition in Taiwan, and to understand the actual situation of disaster prevention management in these areas, so as to provide suggestions for the development of intellectual resilient urban management. The research takes the cities of Taoyuan and Taichung as examples for explorations. According to GIS mapping of areas with high aging index, high-density population and high flooding potential, the communities of Sihai and Fuyuan in Taoyuan and the communities of Taichang and Nanshih in Taichung are highlighted. In these communities, it can be found that there are more elderly population and less labor population with high-density living condition. In addition, they are located in the areas where they have experienced severe flooding in the recent past. Based on a series of interviews with community organizations, there is only one community out of the four using flood information mobile app and Line messages for the management of disaster prevention, and the others still rely on the traditional approaches that manage the works of disaster prevention by their community security patrol teams and community volunteers. The interview outcome shows that most elderly people are not interested in learning the use of intellectual devices. Therefore, this research suggests to keep doing the GIS mapping of areas with high aging index, high-density population and high flooding potential for grasping the high-risk communities and to help develop smart monitor and forecast systems for disaster prevention practice in these areas. Based on case-study explorations, the research also advises that it is important to develop easy-to-use bottom-up and two-way immediate communication mechanism for the management of aging society’s disaster prevention.

Keywords: aging society, disaster prevention, GIS, resilient, Taiwan

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Authors: Francisco Fernandez de Castro

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The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) model gives monetary transfers to beneficiary families on the condition that they take specific education and health actions. According to the economic rationale of CCTs the poor need incentives to invest in their human capital because they are trapped by a lack of information and misleading beliefs. If left to their own decision, the poor will not be able to choose what is in their best interests. The basic assumption of the CCT model is that the poor need incentives to take care of their own education and health-nutrition. Due to the incentives (income cash transfers and conditionalities), beneficiary families are supposed to attend doctor visits and health talks. Children would stay in the school. These incentivized behaviors would produce outcomes such as better health and higher level of education, which in turn will reduce poverty. Based on a grounded theory approach to conduct a two-year period of qualitative data collection in northern Mexico, this study shows that this explanation is incomplete. In addition to the information failure and inadequate beliefs, there are structural barriers in everyday life of households that make health-nutrition and education investments difficult. In-depth interviews and observation work showed that the program takes for granted local conditions in which beneficiary families should fulfill their co-responsibilities. Data challenged the program’s assumptions and unveiled local obstacles not contemplated in the program’s design. These findings have policy and research implications for the CCT agenda. They bring elements for late programming due to the gap between the CCT strategy as envisioned by policy designers, and the program that beneficiary families experience on the ground. As for research consequences, these findings suggest new avenues for scholarly work regarding the causal mechanisms and social processes explaining CCT outcomes.

Keywords: conditional cash transfers, incentives, poverty, structural barriers

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Authors: Abubakar-Zagoon Adams, Emmanuel Intsiful, Haruna Zagoon-Sayeed

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Within the Ghanaian context, the promotion of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has been faced with many obstacles which are of great concern to national development. One of the obstacles that have been identified as having some negative impact on TVET promotion is the poor public perception of TVET. Poor public perception, as identified in the sub-sectors report in a number of Ghana Education Service reports, has received little attention in both research and the government’s effort to address the poor performance of the TVET sub-sector. This study investigated TVET stakeholders in the Ayawaso-West Municipality in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana to ascertain knowledge of technical and vocational education in Ghana. This study explored parents’ and students’ views and knowledge about technical and vocational education. The study adopted an exploratory research design and a qualitative research approach. Thirty-six (36) participants were selected by employing a purposive sampling technique. Twelve (ten parents and two school personnel) out of the total sample were engaged in key informant interviews, whereas three focus group discussions were conducted with students, eight in each group. The study found that the public has fair knowledge (positive) about TVET, and the other side of the coin knows that TVET is only meant for school dropouts, underprivileged students, and weak academic students. The study recommended that the government should intensify public education on TVET, deliberate investment should be made in TVET infrastructure, as well as proper regulation of the sub-sector.

Keywords: public perception, TVET promotion, socioeconomic, self-employment

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Authors: Babanyara Y. Y., Ibrahim D. B., Garba T., Bogoro A. G., Abubakar, M. Y.

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Medical care is vital for our life, health, and well-being. However, the waste generated from medical activities can be hazardous, toxic, and even lethal because of their high potential for diseases transmission. The hazardous and toxic parts of waste from healthcare establishments comprising infectious, medical, and radioactive material as well as sharps constitute a grave risks to mankind and the environment, if these are not properly treated/disposed or are allowed to be mixed with other municipal waste. In Nigeria, practical information on this aspect is inadequate and research on the public health implications of poor management of medical wastes is few and limited in scope. Findings drawn from Literature particularly in the third world countries highlights financial problems, lack of awareness of risks involved in MWM, lack of appropriate legislation and lack of specialized MWM staff. The paper recommends how MWM practices can be improved in medical facilities.

Keywords: environmental pollution, infectious, management, medical waste, public health

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Authors: Lakmali Anthony, Madeline Gillies

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Purpose: Long-term survivorship in colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing as mortality decreases, leading to increased focus on patient-reported outcomes such as quality of life (QoL). CRC patients often have decreased QoL even after treatment is complete. This systematic review of the literature aims to identify psychosocial factors associated with decreased QoL in post-treatment CRC patients. Methodology: This systematic review was performed in accordance with the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations. The search was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychINFO using MeSH headings. The two authors screened studies for relevance and extracted data. Results: Seventeen studies were identified, including 6,272 total participants (mean = 392, 58% male) with a mean age of 60.6 years. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 was the most common measure of QoL (n=14, 82.3%). Most studies (n=15, 88.2%) found that emotional distress correlated with poor global QoL. This was most commonly measured with the Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale (n=11, 64.7%). Other psychosocial factors associated with QoL were lack of social support, body image, and financial difficulties. Clinicopathologic determinants included presence of stoma and metastasis. Conclusion: This systematic review provides a summary of the psychosocial determinants of poor QoL in post-treatment CRC patients, as well as the most commonly reported measures of these. An understanding of these potentially modifiable determinants of poor outcome is pivotal to the provision of quality, patient-centred care in surgical oncology.

Keywords: colorectal cancer, cancer surgery, quality of life, oncology, social determinants

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Authors: Margarida Franca

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The influence of the ‘cultural turn’ movement and the consequent deconstruction of scientific thought allowed geography and other social sciences to open or deepen their studies based on the analysis of multiple identities, on singularities, on what is particular or what marks the difference between individuals. In the context of postmodernity, the geography of religion has gained a favorable scientific, thematic and methodological focus for the qualitative and subjective interpretation of various religious identities, sacred places, territories of belonging, religious communities, among others. In the context of ‘late modernity’ or ‘net modernity’, sacred places and the definition of a network of sacred territories allow believers to attain the ‘ontological security’. The integration on a religious group or a local community, particularly a religious community, allows human beings to achieve a sense of belonging, familiarity or solidarity and to overcome, in part, some of the risks or fears that society has discovered. The importance of sacred places comes not only from their inherent characteristics (eg transcendent, mystical and mythical, respect, intimacy and abnegation), but also from the possibility of adding and integrating members of the same community, creating bonds of belonging, reference and individual and collective memory. In addition, the formation of different networks of sacred places, with multiple scales and dimensions, allows the human being to identify and structure his times and spaces of daily life. Thus, each individual, due to his unique identity and life and religious paths, creates his own network of sacred places. The territorial expression of religious identity allows to draw a variable and unique geography of sacred places. Through the case study of the practicing Catholic population in the diocese of Coimbra (Portugal), the aim is to study the territorial expression of the religious identity of the different local communities of this city. Through a survey of six parishes in the city, we sought to identify which factors, qualitative or not, define the different territorial expressions on a local, national and international scale, with emphasis on the socioeconomic profile of the population, the religious path of the believers, the religious group they belong to and the external interferences, religious or not. The analysis of these factors allows us to categorize the communities of the city of Coimbra and, for each typology or category, to identify the specific elements that unite the believers to the sacred places, the networks and religious territories that structure the religious practice and experience and also the non-representational landscape that unifies and creates memory. We conclude that an apparently homogeneous group, the Catholic community, incorporates multitemporalities and multiterritorialities that are necessary to understand the history and geography of a whole country and of the Catholic communities in particular.

Keywords: geography of religion, sacred places, territoriality, Catholic Church

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Authors: Matias Hargreaves, Martin Del Valle, Diego Rodriguez, Riveros Jose Luis

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Trough years, all kind of social development projects have tried to solve social problems such as hunger, poverty, malnutrition, food insecurity, among others, with poor success. Both private and state initiatives have invested resources in several countries and communities. Nevertheless, most of these initiatives are scientific or external developers-centered, with a lack of local participation. This compromises the sustainability of any intervention and also leads to a poor empowerment of local community. The participatory approach aims to rescue and enhance the local knowledge since it recognizes that this kind of problems are better known by native actors. The objective of the study was to describe the role played by the community empowerment on food security improvement in the NGO “O Viveiro” (15°43'37.77"S; 32°46'27.53"E) and Barrio Broma village (15°43'58.78"S; 32°46'7.27"E) in Chitima, Mozambique. A center for training in goat livestock and orchard was build. A community orchard was co-constructed between foreign technicians and local actors. The prototype was installed in February, 2016 by the technician team and local community with 16 m2 as a nursery garden. Two orchard workshops were conducted in order to design a sustainable productive model which mixes both local and technological approaches. Two goat meat workshops were conducted in order to describe local methods and train the community to conduce their own techniques with high sanitary and productive standards. Technician team stayed in Mozambique until May, 2016. The quorum for the orchard workshops was 20 and 14 persons respectively, which represents 100% and 70%of the total requested quorum (20). For the goat meat workshops were 4 and 5 persons, which representa80% and 100% of the total requested quorum (5). Until August, 2016, the orchard is 3.219 m2 and it grows several vegetables as beans, chili pepper, garlic, onion, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potato, yuca potato, cabbage, eggplant, papaya trees, mango, and cassava. The process of increasing in size and diversification of vegetables grown was led entirely by the local community. In connection with this, the local community started to harvest and began to sell the vegetable products at the local market. At the meat goat workshops, local participants rescued a local knowledge by describing and practicing a traditional way to process goat meat by drying it outdoors and then doing a smoked treatment. This information might contribute to describe the level of empowerment of this community, and thus give evidence of acceptance of foreign intervention for improving their own proceedings and traditions.

Keywords: children malnutrition, food security, Local community, participatory approach

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Authors: Baikuntha Prasad Acharya, Elizabeth Halpenny

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Small tourism enterprises (STEs) are primary providers of services and attractions in many destinations of less developed countries; they are considered the lifeblood of tourism sector. Furthermore, in rural community destinations of such countries including Nepal, STEs are regarded as alternative tools for advancing economic and sociocultural transformations. Many families in rural Nepali destinations are venturing into small tourism entrepreneurship so that their poverty can be reduced and they can live a sustained life. Most these communities are utilizing their lifestyles and natural and cultural heritages as tourism attractions. This study aimed to understand the sustainability of the STEs in rural destinations by synthesizing observations from Ghalegaon and Ghandruk of the Annapurna Conservation Area in western Nepal. Ghalegaon has community-based homestays and Ghandruk has independently owned and operated small tourism businesses such as cafes, tea houses, lodges, guest houses, and hotels, etc. The community-based homestays of Ghalegaon are compared with the independently owned and operated STEs of Ghandruk. The data were collected through multiple sources: 1) survey of tourists (n=112) and households (n=191); 2) interviews (n=14) with the locals, 3) group discussions (n=10) with different local groups including that of regional tourism players, experts and policy makers, 4) observations, and 5) document analysis. The STEs of both communities were first analyzed by understanding their level of sustainability as businesses, and then were explored how they were impacting on respective communities’ sustainability. The survey indicators and guidelines for interviews and group discussions were adapted to the Nepalese context based on four pillars of sustainability: economic, social, cultural and environmental; an additional dimension of management was also included, particularly for the STEs. The findings have shown a weaker economic and management dimensions of Ghalegaon’s Homestay than that of Ghandruk’s STEs. Some interesting social complexities of rural tourism and entrepreneurship were also revealed. This study’s findings do not much resonate to what Nepal government’s current rural tourism strategies that have been envisioned and prioritized for, particularly that the rural homestay tourism opportunities enhance inclusiveness of women and other deprived communities by spreading the benefits to the grassroots level. The study has highlighted several important applied implications to the local tourism management committees, tourism operators and associations, and regional and national tourism authorities. Further studies are advisable in other similar contexts in Nepal and in other countries to see whether there are variances in the findings.

Keywords: Nepal, rural tourism communities, small tourism enterprises, sustainability

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Authors: Salamatu Shaibu, Jan Hernning Sommer

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Integrating biodiversity conservation practices in mining landscapes ensures the continual provision of various ecosystem services to the dependent communities whilst serving as ecological insurance for corporate mining when purchasing reclamation security bonds. Climate hazards such as long dry seasons, erratic rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events contribute to biodiversity loss in addition to the impact due to mining. Both corporate mining and mine-fringe communities perceive the effect of climate on biodiversity from the context of the benefits they accrue, which motivate their conservation practices. In this study, pragmatic approaches including semi-structured interviews, field visual observation, and review were used to collect data on corporate mining employees and households of fringing communities in the southwestern mining hub. The perceived changes in the local climatic conditions and the consequences on environmental management practices that promote biodiversity conservation were examined. Using a thematic content analysis tool, the result shows that best practices such as concurrent land rehabilitation, reclamation ponds, artificial wetlands, land clearance, and topsoil management are directly affected by prolonging long dry seasons and erratic rainfall patterns. Excessive dust and noise generation directly affect both floral and faunal diversity coupled with excessive fire outbreaks in rehabilitated lands and nearby forest reserves. Proposed adaptive measures include engaging national conservation authorities to promote reforestation projects around forest reserves. National government to desist from using permit for mining concessions in forest reserves, engaging local communities through educational campaigns to control forest encroachment and burning, promoting community-based resource management to promote community ownership, and provision of stricter environmental legislation to compel corporate, artisanal, and small scale mining companies to promote biodiversity conservation.

Keywords: biodiversity conservation, climate hazards, corporate mining, mining landscapes

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Authors: Eman Shady, Ray Langsten

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In Egypt, girls have traditionally been educationally disadvantaged. This disadvantage, however, has been focused on the failure to enter school. Increasingly it is recognized that girls who ever-enroll are at least as likely to complete primary and secondary education as boys. Still the belief persists that girls, especially those from poor families, will be disadvantaged in terms of school expenditures and the transitions to secondary and higher education. We use data from the 2005-06 Egypt Household Education Survey to examine expenditures on tutoring during the final year of preparatory school, and the transition to specific tracks of secondary education. Tests during the last year of preparatory largely determine a student’s educational future. Results show that girls, even girls from poor families, are not disadvantaged in terms of expenditures, whether for tutoring, fees or general expenses. Moreover, girls are more likely than boys to advance to general secondary education, the track that leads to higher education.

Keywords: gender, tutoring, track, Egypt

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Authors: Victor Oluwaseyi Olowonisi

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The paper aimed at presenting an overview on the concept of e-learning as it relates to higher education and how it provides opportunities for students, instructors and the government in developing the educational sector. It also touched on the benefits and challenges attached to e-learning as a new medium of reaching more students especially in the Nigerian context. The opportunities attributed to e-learning in the paper includes breaking boundaries barriers, reaching a larger number of students, provision of jobs for ICT experts, etc. In contrary, poor power supply, cost of implementation, poor computer literacy, technophobia (fear of technology), computer crime and system failure were some of the challenges of e-learning discussed in the paper. The paper proffered that the government can help the people gain more from e-learning through its financing. Also, it was stated that instructors/lecturers and students need to undergo training on computer application in order for e-learning to be more effective in developing higher education in Nigeria.

Keywords: e-learning, education, higher education, increasing literacy

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Authors: Elmo Thiago Lins Cöuras Ford, Valentina Alessandra Carvalho do Vale

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With the evolution of the productive processes, demonstrated mainly by the presence every time larger of the irrigation and to crescent it disputes for water, accompanied by your shortage (distances every time larger), there is need to project facilities that can provide supply of water with larger speed and efficiency. Being like this, the presence of hydraulic pumps in an irrigation project or water supply for small communities, is of highest importance, and the knowledge of the fundamental parts to your good operation it deserves the due attention and care. Hydraulic pumps are machines of flow, whose function is to supply energy for the water, in order to press down her, through the conversion of mechanical energy of your originating from rotor a motor the combustion or of an electric motor. This way, the hydraulic pumps are had as generating hydraulic machines. The objective of this work was to project and to build a radial centrifugal pump for agricultural application in small communities.

Keywords: centrifuge pump, hydraulic energy, agricultural applications, irrigation

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Authors: Tsediso Makoelle

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South Africa like in other parts of the world has acknowledged the prevalence of the phenomenon of homosexuality in the society. Due to the number of homosexuality cases in the South African society, questions have been asked about the impact of homosexuality in schools and how teachers and learners deal with homosexuality within the context of an emerging inclusive education system. This qualitative study analysis the experiences of teachers and learners in selected secondary schools in relation to prevalence of transgender in schools. Interviews were conducted with principals, teachers and focus group of learners in schools were cases homosexuality have been reported. Data was analysed using an inductive analysis framework. Among the findings was that homosexuality is still viewed as a taboo in Black-African dominated school communities and that the need to create all-embracing and inclusive environment was evident. The study suggests a needs to open communications in communities about homosexuality in order to develop an all-inclusive environment for all learners regardless of their sexual orientation.

Keywords: homosexuality, inclusive education, sexual orientation, transgender

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Authors: Digby Wrede, Stephen Gray, Syed Hussainy

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Microalgae are extremely useful organisms but notoriously hard to harvest. The use of fungal pellets has been found to be an efficient way to flocculate numerous species of algae. However, only the flocculation of single species of algae has been investigated. Algae are generally found in complex communities in the environment comprising of numerous species of algae ranging from simple single cell algae such as Chlorella to more complex or communal algae such as Dictyosphaerium. This study investigated the flocculation capabilities of Aspergillus oryzae to flocculate four species of algae; Chlorella vulgaris, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Scenedesmus acuminatus and Dictyosphaerium sp., and the algal communities in four different types of domestic effluent from a lagoon-based treatment plant; primary effluent, secondary effluent and the high rate algal pond effluent at a natural and at a lowered pH level. Spectrophotometry was used to measure the changes in algal population. C. vulgaris, S. acuminatus and S. quadricauda, had over 90% reduction of algal in suspension after 24 hours. Dictyosphaerium sp. showed a little to no removal after 24 hours. The primary, secondary, and natural pH level HRAP had roughly a 50% removal after 24 hours, the HRAP which was grown at a lower pH level had over a 90% removal after 24 hours. pH has been shown previously to affect fungal flocculation. Fungal and algae pellets have been shown to be able to treat wastewater and can be converted to biofuels in a very similar method to how algae are currently converted. The mixture of both fungi and algae has also been shown to provide a higher yield of oils then separately and are able to more efficiently treat wastewater then algae or fungi by themselves.

Keywords: algae harvesting, Aspergillus oryzae, fungal flocculation, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Philasande Runeli, Lynn Jonas

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Empowerment suggests participation is working collaboratively towards shared objectives, obtaining resources and critically analysing one’s social and political differences are all necessary steps in the empowering process. The aim of leadership empowerment is to give a team the resources and encouragement they need to work more productively together. This study explores potential ways to increase local empowerment and participation in blue tourism activities in an urban coastal context in South Africa. Blue tourism, which refers to the application of sustainability practices to tourism activities in coastal and marine settings, has the potential to significantly improve socioeconomic conditions in coastal communities. However, people's engagement in these activities remain restricted. The study uses a constructivist research paradigm and employs a qualitative method, conducting semi-structured interviews with community members from three different communities gaining in-depth perspectives from them. The study's goal is to identify impediments and potential for community participation in blue tourism, as well as offering practical solutions for promoting long-term and inclusive participation. Initial key findings highlight critical barriers to participation, emphasising the importance of skills development, policy alignment with local needs, and public-private partnerships as key components of community empowerment. This study offers policymakers and stakeholders recommendations for promoting inclusive blue tourism initiatives. The recommended initiatives emphasise the significance of skills development, infrastructure investment, and sustainable tourism models in ensuring economic empowerment and environmental conservation in urban coastal communities in developing states.

Keywords: blue tourism, community empowerment and participation, sustainable tourism models, inclusive participation

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Authors: Preeti Virkar, V. P. Uniyal, Vinod Kumar Bhatt

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With 50% decline in managed honey bee hives in the continents of Europe and America, farmers and landscape managers are turning to native wild bees for their essential ecosystem services of pollination. Wild bees population are too under danger due to the rapid land use changes from anthropogenic activities. With an escalating population reaching 9.0 billion by 2050, human-induced land use changes are predicted to further deteriorate the habitats of numerous species by the turn of this century. The status of bees are uncertain, especially in the tropical regions of the world, which also questions the crisis of global pollinator decline and their essential services to wild and managed flora. Our investigation collectively compares wild native bee diversity and their status in forests and agroecosystems in Doon Valley landscape, situated at the foothills of Himalayan ranges, Uttarakhand, India. We seek to ask whether (1) natural habitat are refuge to richer and rarer bees communities than the agroecosystems, (2) Are agroecosystems closer to natural habitats similar to them than agroecosystems farther away; hence support richer bee communities and hence, (3) Do polyculture farms support richer bee communities than monoculture. The data was collected using observation and pantrap sampling form February to May, 2012 to 2014. We recorded 43 species of bees in Doon Valley. They belonged to 5 families; Megachilidae, Apidae, Andrenidae, Halictidae and Collitidae. A multinomial model approach was used to classify the bees into 2 habitats, in which forests demonstrated to support greater number of specialist (26%, n= 11) species than agroecosystems (7%, n= 3). The valley had many species categorized as the rare (58%, n= 25) and very few generalists (9%, n=4). A linear regression model run on our data demonstrated higher bee diversity in agro-ecosystems in close proximity to forests (H’ for < 200 m = 1.60) compared to those further away (H’ for > 600 m = 0.56) (R2=0.782, SE=0.148, p value=0.004). Organic agriculture supported significantly greater species richness in comparison to conventional farms (Mann-Whitney U test, n1 = 33, n2 = 35; P = 0.001). Forests ecosystems are refuge to rare specialist groups and support bee communities in nearby agroecosystems. The findings of our investigation demonstrate the importance of natural habitats as a potential refuge for rare native wild bee pollinators. Polyculture in the valley behaves similar to natural habitats and supports diverse bee communities in comparison to conventional monocultures. Our study suggests that the farming communities adopt diverse organic agriculture systems to attract wild pollinators beneficial for better crop production. Forests are sanctuaries for bees to nest, forage, and breed. Therefore, our outcome also suggests landscape managers not only preserve protected areas but also enhance the floral diversity in semi-natural and urban areas.

Keywords: native bees, pollinators, polyculture, agroecosystem, natural habitat, diversity, monoculture, specialists, generalists

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Authors: S. Chuenchooklin, S. Taweepong, U. Pangnakorn

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This research was conducted in the Mae Sot Watershed whereas located in the Moei River Basin at the Upper Salween River Basin in Tak Province, Thailand. The Mae Sot Municipality is the largest urbanized in Tak Province and situated in the midstream of the Mae Sot Watershed. It usually faces flash flood problem after heavy rain due to poor flood management has been reported since economic rapidly bloom up in recently years. Its catchment can be classified as ungauged basin with lack of rainfall data and no any stream gaging station was reported. It was attached by most severely flood event in 2013 as the worst studied case for those all communities in this municipality. Moreover, other problems are also faced in this watershed such shortage water supply for domestic consumption and agriculture utilizations including deterioration of water quality and landslide as well. The research aimed to increase capability building and strengthening the participation of those local community leaders and related agencies to conduct better water management in urban area was started by mean of the data collection and illustration of appropriated application of some short period rainfall forecasting model as the aim for better flood relief plan and management through the hydrologic model system and river analysis system programs. The authors intended to apply the global rainfall data via the integrated data viewer (IDV) program from the Unidata with the aim for rainfall forecasting in short period of 7 - 10 days in advance during rainy season instead of real time record. The IDV product can be present in advance period of rainfall with time step of 3 - 6 hours was introduced to the communities. The result can be used to input to either the hydrologic modeling system model (HEC-HMS) or the soil water assessment tool model (SWAT) for synthesizing flood hydrographs and use for flood forecasting as well. The authors applied the river analysis system model (HEC-RAS) to present flood flow behaviors in the reach of the Mae Sot stream via the downtown of the Mae Sot City as flood extents as water surface level at every cross-sectional profiles of the stream. Both models of HMS and RAS were tested in 2013 with observed rainfall and inflow-outflow data from the Mae Sot Dam. The result of HMS showed fit to the observed data at dam and applied at upstream boundary discharge to RAS in order to simulate flood extents and tested in the field, and the result found satisfied. The result of IDV’s rainfall forecast data was compared to observed data and found fair. However, it is an appropriate tool to use in the ungauged catchment to use with flood hydrograph and river analysis models for future efficient flood relief plan and management.

Keywords: global rainfall, flood forecast, hydrologic modeling system, river analysis system

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Authors: Isaiah Phillip Smith, Sam Erevbenagie Usadolo, Pamela Theresa Tancsik

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This paper is part of ongoing doctoral research that examines the role of Theatre for Development (TfD) in addressing climate change in the Mosuthu community in Reservoir Hills, Durban, South Africa. The context of the research underscores the pressing challenges facing South Africa, including drought, water shortages, deterioration of land, and civil unrest that require innovative approaches to the mitigation of climate change. TfD, described as a dialogical form of theatre that allows communities to express and contribute to development, emerges as a strategic medium for engaging communities in the process. The research problem focused on the unexamined potential of TfD in promoting community involvement and critical awareness of climate change. The study objectives included assessing the community's understanding of climate change, exploring TfD's potential as a participatory tool, examining its role in community mobilization, and developing recommendations for its effective implementation. A review of relevant literature and preliminary investigations in the research community indicates that TfD is an effective medium for promoting societal transformation and engaging marginalized communities. Through culturally resonant narratives, TfD can instill a deeper understanding of environmental challenges, fostering empathy and motivating behavioural changes. By integrating community voices and cultural elements, TfD serves as a powerful catalyst for promoting climate change awareness and inspiring collective action within the South African context. This research contributes to the global discourse on innovative approaches to climate change awareness and action.

Keywords: TfD, climate change, community involvement, societal transformation, culture

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Authors: Martin S. Mulyadi

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This research investigates the corporate governance disclosure behavior of Indonesian corporations with type II agency problems. The primary cause of the 1990s Asian financial crisis has been attributed to poor corporate governance practices in Indonesia. Most importantly, these poor practices were commonly found in family-owned and government-owned corporations. There are a lot of publicly listed family-owned and government-owned corporations in Indonesia. Agency theory refers to these corporations as corporations with type II agency problems. This research employs agency theory to analyzes corporate governance practice and disclosures in such settings and found that government-owned corporations perform better than family-owned corporations.

Keywords: corporate governance, corporate disclosures, agency theory, type II agency problems

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Authors: Noor Farizah Ibrahim, Christopher Durugbo

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This study aims to investigate how the Twittersphere reacted during the recent historical event of robotic landing on a comet. The news is about Philae, a robotic lander from European Space Agency (ESA), which successfully made the first-ever rendezvous and touchdown of its kind on a nucleus comet on November 12, 2014. In order to understand how Twitter is practically used in spreading messages on historical events, we conducted an analysis of one-week tweet feeds that contain the #CometLanding hashtag. We studied the trends of tweets, the diffusion of the information and the characteristics of the social network created. The results indicated that the use of Twitter as a platform enables online communities to engage and spread the historical event through social media network (e.g. tweets, retweets, mentions and replies). In addition, it was found that comprehensible and understandable hashtags could influence users to follow the same tweet stream compared to other laborious hashtags which were difficult to understand by users in online communities.

Keywords: diffusion of information, hashtag, social media, Twitter

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Rajendra Kumar Pandey

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Forest genetic resources not only represent regional biodiversity but also have immense value as the wealth for securing livelihood of poor people. These are vulnerable to ecological due to depletion/deforestation and /or impact of climate change. These resources of various plant categories are vulnerable on the floor of natural tropical forests, and leading to the threat on the growth and development of future forests. More than 170 species, including NTFPs, are in critical condition for their survival in natural tropical forests of Central India. Forest degradation, commensurate with biodiversity loss, is now pervasive, disproportionately affecting the rural poor who directly depend on forests for their subsistence. Looking ahead the interaction between forest and water, soil, precipitation, climate change, etc. and its impact on biodiversity of tropical forests, it is inevitable to develop co-operation policies and programmes to address new emerging realities. Forests ecosystem also known as the 'wealth of poor' providing goods and ecosystem services on a sustainable basis, are now recognized as a stepping stone to move poor people beyond subsistence. Poverty alleviation is the prime objective of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, environmental sustainability including other MDGs, is essential to ensure successful elimination of poverty and well being of human society. Loss and degradation of ecosystem are the most serious threats to achieving development goals worldwide. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) was an attempt to identify provisioning and regulating cultural and supporting ecosystem services to provide livelihood security of human beings. Climate change may have a substantial impact on ecological structure and function of forests, provisioning, regulations and management of resources which can affect sustainable flow of ecosystem services. To overcome these limitations, policy guidelines with respect to planning and consistent research strategy need to be framed for conservation and sustainable development of forest genetic resources.

Keywords: climate change, forest ecosystem services, sustainable forest management, biodiversity conservation

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Authors: Musa Ogah Ari

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Poverty has engaged the attention of the global community. Both the rich and poor countries are concerned about its prevalence and impacts. This phenomenon is more pervasive among developing countries with the greater challenges manifesting among African countries. In Nigeria people live with very low income, and so decent three-square meals, clothes, shelter and other basic necessities are very difficult to come by for most of the population. Qualitative health facilities are seriously lacking to over 160 million population in the state. Equally lacking are educational and social infrastructures that can be available to the people at affordable rates. Roads linking the interior parts of the state are generally in deplorable conditions, particularly in the rainy season. Safe drinking water is hard to come by as the state is not properly placed and equipped to function in full capacity to serve the interest of the people. The challenges of poverty is definitely enormous for both the national and state governments consequently, debilitating scourge of poverty. As the ruling elites in Nigeria claim to reduce the rising profile of poverty through series of policies and programmes, food production, promotion and funding of co-operatives for agriculture, improvement of infrastructures at the rural areas to guaranteeing employment through skill acquisition, assistance of rural women to break away from poverty and the provision of small scale credit facilities to poor members of the public were abysmally low. It is observed that the poverty alleviation programmes and policies failed because they were by nature, character and implementation pro-elites and anti-masses. None of the programmes or policies engaged the rural poor either in terms of formulation or implementation.

Keywords: the state, poverty, government policies, strategies, social amenities, corruption

Procedia PDF Downloads 355