Using photovoice methods as a community-based participatory research tool to advance uptake of clean cooking and improve health: The LPG adoption in Cameroon evaluation studies.

Each year up to 2.6 million people die prematurely from household air pollution (HAP) due to cooking with polluting fuels such as wood and charcoal, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The World Health Organisation recommends scaling the adoption of clean fuels to improve maternal and child health. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) represents a scalable clean fuel that provides health and environmental benefits when used for household energy in LMICs. In Cameroon, over 70% of people rely on biomass for cooking, and the Government aims to increase LPG use from <20% to 58% by 2030. Supporting households make this transition requires involvement of multiple stakeholders and an understanding of perspectives from the community's perspective. We used visual participatory methods 'Photovoice' to explore households' perceptions of factors influencing the uptake of LPG for cooking in South-West Cameroon. Two groups of participants from rural (n = 7) and peri-urban (n = 8) areas photographed subjects they identified as preventing and facilitating LPG uptake in their communities. Subsequently, individual interviews (n = 15) and group discussions (n = 5) explored participants' reflections on the photographs. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 10 software. The main barriers identified included difficulty in affording the initial LPG equipment and ongoing refills, scarcity of LPG retail shops and refills, and safety concerns. Facilitators included (i) increasing awareness of the benefits of LPG (e.g. health), (ii) increasing retail outlet density in rural areas, (iii) addressing safety concerns (e.g. replacing damaged cylinders), and (iv) reducing the price of LPG refills. Participants presented their photos at a public exhibition, which generated discussions with key stakeholders (e.g. government ministries) about how best to assist communities in this transition. Photovoice was found to be an innovative and effective approach for exploring how to advance equitable access to LPG from a community perspective and successfully engage with key stakeholders.

The doubtful environmental benefit of reduced maximum sulfur limit in international shipping fuel.

On January 1st, 2012, the maximum limit for sulfur concentration in marine fuels on the high seas was lowered from 4.50% to 3.50% by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). It was one of a series of planned steps toward reducing the negative environmental and health impacts of international shipping. This study investigates the effectiveness of the IMO regulation in reducing global sulfur emissions. We found a reduction in global average sulfur concentration of only 0.07% points from 2011 to 2012. On the positive side, we also found that only 2.3% of the bunkerings were noncompliant in 2012, that is, exceeded the new 3.50% sulfur concentration cap. The analysis furthermore suggests that compliance with the new regulation is achieved by blending high sulfur fuel with lower sulfur fuel, rather than by removing high sulfur fuel from the market or removing the excess sulfur. The main conclusion is that the regulation has been effective in reducing the maximum sulfur concentration but has not been very effective in reducing the average sulfur concentration. Thus, the regulation may have resulted in local environmental benefits but has not resulted in global benefits with respect to global sulfur emissions from international shipping.

Probabilistic estimation of the economic effect of operating accidents in the oil and gas industry.

Performance of the company staff is determined by the proficiency of available personal resources. Some of the respective key indicators could be influenced by planner, but most of them are out of direct control. This opens the strong demand on reliable prediction modeling. Decision maker is interested not only in knowing of labor supply/demand situation, but also about the proficiency and reliability of employees. Presented work is intended to find out, which statistical methods are suitable for certain aspects of the staff planning process. General broad modeling of stochastically changing workforce availability numbers could be considered like a description of the random events observation. These events could be categorized and forecasted by the mean of further development of NPI (nonparametric predictive inference) method suggested by Augustin and Coolen. Its capability to learn from multinomial data, especially such as strongly influenced by business environment, geography, state policy, etc., extracted from market reports, and induced from managerial experience seems to be promising. After demand and supply of workforce is forecasted, manager must start the process of hiring. Individual staff evaluation is also quite challenging because of lack or incorrectness of initial information about possible profile type of the candidate. Dempster-Shafer Theory may be good one, but speaking of "gambles" could disappoint many HRspecialists. So, adaptation of the Theory of Adaptive Utility proposed by Houlding and Coolen is assumed as perspective tool for solving this problem. HR decision maker can also follow this kind of sequential process. When the completion of team and groups is done, the labor activity begins. Here, each employee demonstrates his performance rate, qualification and reliability. In this case interaction between workers is strongly matters. Conditional probability is in charge of that kind of evaluation and therefore Bayesian schemes and Walley technique are further developed and applied. Dismissed employees flowing out of the firm again into workforce market and will be available for other companies, also for competitors. Feedback to initial step is recommended.

Lamp oil poisoning: did the European guideline reduce the number and severity of intoxications?

INTRODUCTION: In 1997, a European guideline concerning the viscosity and surface tension of lamp oil was adopted to reduce instances and severity of lamp oil intoxications. In 2005, the Dutch National Poisons Information Centre investigated lamp oil intoxications to determine whether they differed in severity from the intoxications reported before the guideline was adopted. METHODS: We compared the data prospectively collected on lamp oil intoxications reported to our center in 2005 and in 1996. RESULTS: In 2005 and 1996, respectively 152 and 165 cases were included. The frequency of the symptoms and diagnosed pneumonitis did not differ significantly between those years. In 2005, ingestion of a transparent lamp oil seemed to be associated with a greater risk of serious respiratory symptoms than ingestion of colored oil. CONCLUSION: Despite the directive, frequency and severity of symptoms of lamp oil ingestions remain disturbing. Consequently, further actions concerning packaging and labeling of lamp oil, design of oil lamps, education of parents, and additions to the current guideline should be considered.

[Analysis of organic and inorganic components of Diesel engine exhaust absorbed on ore-mine aerosol particles]. / Issledovanie sorbirovannykh na chastitsakh rudnichnogo aérozolia organicheskikh i neorganicheskikh komponentov vykhlopa dizel'nykh dvigatelei.

The article proposes results of research into exhausts' major components absorption in accumulated and floating dusts in ore mines in which self-propelled diesel vehicles are predominantly used. It was established that ore-mine aerosol particles had a large specific surface and contained a high percentage of carbon-black (1,1-35.1%). Different results were received for both organic and non-organic substances' sorption indices. In the samples, in addition to 3,4-benzapyrene, 11 more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were identified, with concentrations 10-15 times higher than those of 3,4-benzapyrene.