Child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa is reducing but the levels remain high with subnational within-country variations. Birth weight is a key predictor of child survival and monitoring birth weight outcomes, in particular, prevalence of low birth weights, is important for resource allocation to improve child survival outcomes. Past research in sub-Saharan Africa has found that different individual-level factors are associated with birth weight including BMI of mother, sex of baby, educational level of mother, and wealth index of household. Some environmental factors are found to be associated with birth outcomes. However, past findings regarding the association of birth weight with household air pollution (HAP) resulting from cooking fuels are non-conclusive. In this study, we analyze variability in birth weights subnationally for Ghana and assess its association with household air pollution resulting from cooking fuels, accounting for variation due to other factors including maternal and household predictors, as well as geographical location. The analysis was based on birth weights for 1310 births, obtained from data collected in 2014 in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). We use Bayesian spatial regression models to estimate associations and capture spatial variation. Spatial variation was captured with a conditional autoregressive (CAR) model. Based on various models, we do not find evidence to suggest that cooking fuel is associated with birth weight. After accounting for covariates, the average birth weights per district ranged from 2823g (95% CI: 2613g, 3171g) in Ketu district to 3243g (95% CI: 3083g, 3358g) in Ashanti Akim North district. Across Ghana, difference in birth weight attributable to district spatial effects range from -33g in Lawra district in Upper West region of Ghana to 11g in Ho in the Volta region.

Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka huruvida införandet av investeringssparkontot har orsakat lägre transaktionskostnader och således ökat sparande i noterade aktier hos svenska hushåll. För att undersöka införandet av investeringssparkontot i Sverige har en kontrollgrupp skapats med länder som hittills inte infört någon liknande kontoklass. Uppsatsen utgår ifrån kvartalsvisa observationer hos Sverige och kontrollgruppen under perioden 2000–2020. I syfte att studera resultatet har en difference-in-difference metod använts som jämfört Sveriges utveckling mot ett viktat snitt av länder i en kontrollgrupp. Kontrollgruppens utveckling ger en indikation om hur hushållens sparande i Sverige hade utvecklats utan investeringssparkontot. Uppsatsen finner ingen statistisk signifikans att de svenska hushållens sparande i aktier ökat relativt kontrollgruppen efter införandet av ISK. Däremot finns en deskriptiv tendens för ökat sparande vilket kan vara intressant för framtida studier. / The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether adopting “investment savings account” has led to lower transaction costs and thus increased the level of savings in publicly traded stocks in Swedish households. To examine this relationship, a control group consisting of several different countries with no clear counterpart has been created. The data contains quarterly observations from the period 2000 - 2020. A difference-in-difference method has been applied to observe the results from Sweden in contrast to the weighted average of the control group. The development of the control group gives an estimate of Sweden´s savings without the treatment. The study concludes that Swedish households has no significant increase in stock savings relative to the control group, however it shows a descriptive tendency for an increase in savings that could be relevant for future research.

Yes / This paper presents a study to assess the roof-harvested rainwater (RHRW) in the Ikorodu area of Lagos state, Nigeria, and recommends guidance to minimise the health risk for its households. The types, design and use of rainwater harvesting systems have been evaluated in the study area to inspect the human risk of exposure to Escherichia coli (E. coli). To achieve these objectives, a detailed survey involving 125 households has been conducted which showed that 25% of them drink RHRW. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) analysis has been used to quantify the risk of exposure to harmful E. coli from RHRW utilised as potable water, based on the ingestion of 2 L of rainwater per day per capita. Results have revealed that the maximum E. coli exposure risk from the consumption of RHRW, without application of any household water treatment technique (HHTTs) and with application of alum only, were 100 and 96 respectively, for the estimated number of infection risk per 10,000 exposed households per year. This estimation has been done based on 7% of E. coli as viable and harmful. Conclusively, it is necessary that a form of disinfectant be applied to the RHRW before use.

The genre paintings of the artist Pehr Hilleström (1732–1816) are frequently used as illustrations of everyday life in the Swedish late Eighteen-century bourgeois households. The aim of this study is to examine Hilleströms interior scenes as a source to the cultural history of the Eighteenth century in Sweden.  The Eighteenth century is often described as a period when the concepts of home and household changed and came to be seen as something private and more intimate than before. In this study I examine if these new perceptions of the household found expression in Hilleströms images. In addition, I also analyze if, and to what extent these images can be seen as moralizing.  I do this by examining Hilleströms bourgeoise interiors in relation both to French genre painting, and to accounts of home and household derived from readings of range of Eighteenth-century literary sources. In my examination of the views on household of Hilleström and his contemporaries I use Michael Baxandalls concepts troc and period eye. The primary sources I use to create a period eye, comprise novels, satirical verse, theatre plays and conduct books.  The study shows that Hilleströms images owe quite a lot to conventions of genre painting and, especially to French painters, such as Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin. The content of Hilleström’s pictures correspond well to the image of the traditional, ideal home found in contemporary literature. However, the new, more sentimental ideas about home and household are not to be found in Hilleström’s images. Whether Hilleström’s images are moralizing or not, I find more difficult to conclude. While not explicitly satirical, in the light of the Eighteenth-century literary texts, they might have been interpreted so by the viewer.

High precision data from household travel survey (HTS) is extremely important for the transportation research, traffic models and policy formulation. Traditional methods of data collection were imprecise because they relied on people’s memories of trip information, such as date and location, and the remainder data had to be obtained by certain supplemental tools. The traditional methods suffered from intensive labor, large time consumption, and unsatisfactory data precision. Recent research trends to employ smartphone apps to collect HTS data. In this study, there are two goals to be addressed. First, a smartphone app is developed to realize a smartphone-based method only for data collection. Second, the researcher evaluates whether this method can supply or replace the traditional tools of HTS. Based on this premise, the smartphone app, TravelSurvey, is specially developed and used for this study. TravelSurvey is currently compatible with iPhone 4 or higher and iPhone Operating System (iOS) 6 or higher, except iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 plus and iOS 8. To evaluate the feasibility, eight individuals are recruited to participate in a pilot HTS. Afterwards, seven of them are involved in a semi-structured interview. The interview is designed to collect interviewees’ feedback directly, so the interview mainly concerns the users’ experience of TravelSurvey. Generally, the feedback is positive. In this study, the pilot HTS data is successfully uploaded to the server by the participants, and the interviewees prefer this smartphone-based method. Therefore, as a new tool, the smartphone-based method feasibly supports a typical HTS for data collection.

Thesis (M. A. (Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / In most developing countries including South Africa, the anti-poverty programmes aim to enhance and improve the living condition of the helpless people in the society (DSD, SASSA and UNICEF,2012). In addressing children poverty after the apartheid era, the Child Support Grant (CSG) was implemented in 1998 subsequently the State Maintenance Grant (SMG) was abolished after the review in 1997 by the Lund Committee (Grinspun, 2016 and Xaba, 2016). After twenty-two years of CSG existence, this study aimed to examine the successes of CSG in addressing child poverty and vulnerable households at Ha-Mulima. The study was guided by Structural functional theory as a theoretical framework and a qualitative research methodology was applied to examine the ways or mechanisms through which the Child Support Grant has been successful in attending to the problem of child and household poverty. An exploratory case study approach was used as a research design and the participants were selected through a purposive sampling procedure. In addition, data was collected from participants through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, while thematic content analysis was employed to analyse the findings. The findings of the study show that there are positive outcomes of CSG in relation to the utilisation of grant to eradicate child poverty and household poverty. The study found that the CSG has a positive impact in reducing child poverty since it reduces hunger, children access education and caregivers utilize the money to buy clothes for them. Regardless of caregiver’s dietary diversity in the households, the CSG has positive impacts on food insecurity and improved food consumption since families can use the money to buy food. The findings indicated that the CSG promotes self-reliance in communities whereby the caregivers create their own jobs and affiliate to various stokvels with the aim to empower themselves financially to avoid the dependability on the grant. The significance of the study lies in the way it has the potential of unravelling the dynamics of the Child Support Grant in rural communities. / HW SETA PHARMACY PRO

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