Potential of decentralized wastewater management for urban development: Case of Bangkok

Decentralized wastewater management (DWWM) has recently gained much attention in wastewater management (WWM) due to its build-as-you-go principal. Rapid urban development and the widespread impact of wastewater require sustainable ways to test the DWWM approach. This paper aims to examine and discuss the potential of Bangkok’s current WWM approaches for urban development, focusing on decentralized management approaches. General WWM approaches were examined using case study research methods. Three WWM cases were selected for detailed investigation. Residential wastewater user surveys and expert interviews were used to support system performance findings of service providers and recipients, as well as to draw lessons learned. Results show that DWWM is economically and technically efficient, demonstrating potential for sustainable urban development (SUD) in the study area. The competitive cost found is a result of less sewer line, simple technology, and limited additional costs, while the high efficiency is a result of good operation and maintenance. Also the reclaimed water has been used for landscape irrigation of the urban greenery. Sustainability of the system lies in social value of public amenity it provides, and the urban planning implication that it could be an option for smart growth. The results also show that even in an inner urban area DWWM does not conflict with any SUD considerations. Thus, the study recommends using DWWM for new development within both public and private properties based on Bangkok’s case as part of long-term urban development.     

Mortality among elder abuse victims in rural Malaysia: A two-year population-based descriptive study

Our study aims at describing mortality among reported elder abuse experiences in rural Malaysia. This is a population-based cohort study with a multistage cluster sampling method. Older adults in Kuala Pilah (n = 1,927) were interviewed from November 2013 to May 2014. Mortality was traced after 2 years using the National Registration Department database. Overall, 139 (7.2%) respondents died. Fifteen (9.6%) abuse victims died compared to 124 (7.0%) not abused. Mortality was highest with financial abuse (13%), followed by psychological abuse (10.8%). There was a dose-response relationship between mortality and clustering of abuse: 7%, 7.7%, and 14.0% for no abuse, one type, and two types or more, respectively. Among abuse victims, 40% of deaths had ill-defined causes, 33% were respiratory-related, and 27% had cardiovascular and metabolic origin. Results suggest a link between abuse and mortality. Death proportions varied according to abuse subtypes and gender.     

Dowry Inflation: Perception or Reality?

Population Research and Policy Review - Research on South Asia has consistently documented increasing dowry amounts over the past several decades. Although recent studies have largely concluded...     

Two-level minimum aberration designs in N =2 (mod 4) runs

For two-level factorials, we consider designs in N=2 (mod 4) runs as obtained by adding two runs, with a certain coincidence pattern, to an orthogonal array of strength two. These designs are known to be optimal main effect plans in a very broad sense in the absence of interactions. Among them, we explore the ones having minimum aberration, with a view to ensuring maximum model robustness even when interactions are possibly present. This is done by sequentially minimizing a measure of the bias caused by interactions of successively higher orders.     

Episiotomy practice in the Middle East: A Lebanese teaching tertiary care centre experience

Problem

There is lack of data on the rate of episiotomy in Lebanon and the study’s hospital.

Health Divide: Economic and Demographic Factors Associated with Self-Reported Health Among Older Malaysians

Data from the 2004 Survey of Economic and Financial Aspects of Aging in Malaysia were analyzed to determine factors associated with self-reported health status among older Malaysians. Odds of self-reporting health as bad versus moderate or good were higher for respondents who were in lower income quintiles, who perceived their financial situation as bad, who were older and who were not married. Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Bumiputra ethnic groups had lower odds of perceiving their health to be bad as compared with those in other ethnic groups.     

An assessment of soil nematode food webs and nutrient pools in community gardens and vacant lots in two post-industrial American cities

In the midst of the current economic crisis, there is renewed interest in transforming vacant lots into food-producing gardens. This study analyzed whether vacant lots are suitable for food production, by comparing the soil nematode food webs and nutrient pools of vacant lots and community gardens in two post-industrial U.S. cities, Akron and Cleveland, Ohio. Twelve vacant lots and 12 community gardens were examined in the two cities. All six Akron community gardens were established just prior to the initiation of this study, whereas the six in Cleveland were 15–30 years old. Soil pH, texture, moisture, organic matter, mineral nitrogen content, microbial biomass, and nematode communities were measured in both cities. Soil decomposition rate was also measured in Cleveland. Results show that the soils of vacant lots surpassed those of the newly-established Akron gardens and were equal to the soils of the well-established Cleveland gardens in the amount of ammonium-nitrogen, total nematode population, genus diversity, and maturity and structure indices. The soils of the vacant lots were lower than the community gardens in the amounts of soil moisture, organic matter, and nitrate-nitrogen, which we associate with the addition of water, compost, fertilizer, and tilling in the gardens. No significant difference was found between community gardens and vacant lots in microbial biomass, decomposition rate, or nematode enrichment index, which seems to indicate that vacant lots are equal to community gardens in nutrient availability and nutrient cycling. We conclude that barring any contamination, the soil in vacant lots maybe suitable for the establishment of food gardens, which can provide many desirable ecosystem services and enhance human well-being. We also find that the disturbance associated with tillage and conversion of a vacant lot into a community garden has short-term ramifications for both nematode food webs and mineral-nitrogen content.     

Effects of resident-oriented care on job characteristics of nursing caregivers

This study evaluates the effects of the implementation of resident-oriented care on the job characteristics (job autonomy, job demands and social support) of nursing caregivers in three Dutch nursing homes. In a quasi-experimental design, experimental and control groups in both general and psychogeriatric wards were followed for up to 22 months, using a pre-test and two post-tests by means of written questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the intervention appeared to be partly successful. Last post-test regression analyses revealed significant increases in a number of design characteristics of resident-oriented care. Significant increases were noticed on resident assignment, the two variables measuring the nursing process and, in the psychogeriatric experimental group, on resident-oriented tasks (p≤.01). The effects on job characteristics were limited. An indicative increase was shown in contextual job autonomy in the experimental group (p≤.05). The qualitative data derived from the interviews showed that there was still a partly task-oriented division of labour. Further, the delegation of co-ordination tasks to nursing caregivers had not yet been properly achieved. The study concludes with some theoretical and methodological reflections in the light of the findings.     

Female status and fertility behaviour in a Metropolitan Urban area of Bangladesh

The paper examines hypotheses that certain aspects of status of married women such as (i) decision-making power; (ii) employment status and (iii) educational status, are positively associated with use of contraception and inversely related to fertility performance. The study is based on 1,130 women of reproductive age (15-49) who are currently married and living with their husbands and reported to be fecund. The data are drawn from a cross-section of working and non-working women of Dacca City. The hypothesis that each of the above status variables is related to fertility behaviour (measured as current use of contraception and number of children ever-born) is confirmed, with the sole exception of the relationship between female employment status and fertility behaviour. Female participation in the labour force has little or no effect on use of contraception, particularly among those who belong to higher education and income groups. However, in the lower education and income groups, fertility and use of contraception vary with work experience. The findings clearly point out the need to improve the status of women in order to achieve a breakthrough in the use of contraception and a reduction in fertility.     

On Some Two- and Three-dimensional D-minimax Designs for Estimating Slopes of a Third-order Response Surface

Design of experiments is considered for the situation where estimation of the slopes of a response surface is the main interest. Under the D-minimax criterion, the objective is to minimize the generalized variance of the estimated axial slopes at a point maximized over all points in the region of interest in the factor space. For the third-order model over spherical regions, the D-minimax designs are derived in two and three dimensions. The efficiencies of some two- and three-dimensional designs available in the literature are also investigated.