Thesis (M.Sc.(Epidemiology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Also available online.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-141).

Water is essential for our daily life. Despite this, much of our water has become polluted and nutrient-enriched. One main factor contributing to the problem are private sewers. In total, there are nearly 1 million private sewers in Sweden, which represent one of the largest point sources of nitrogen and phosphorus. A survey was carried out to investigate the status of private sewers at Källsjön, Sollefteå municipality. In addition, four municipalities around Sollefteå have been interviewed about the implementation of legislation concerning private sewers. The study shows that sewers around Källsjön are seemingly in relatively good condition. However, 36% of the polled property owners have drains that are over 20 years old, and the function of these drains can be questioned. Interestingly, many of the surveyed property owners do not even know how old their drains are and what type of facility they have. Three of four interviewed municipalities are currently not performing any active control of private sewers. All municipalities provided information to property owners regarding current legislation. The study suggests that municipalities should act proactively to establish comprehensive inventories, a first step towards raising the standard of the individual sewers.

Sociologists are generally in agreement that the closing decades of the twentieth century involved striking changes in the landscape against which British young people grew up. Transformations in education and the labour market had the potential to dramatically alter and re-shape patterns of social inequality. This thesis addresses the importance of family effects upon educational attainment, early career prospects and, in turn, the post-16 trajectories of young adults against the contextual changes of this period. Recently, youth researchers have been keen to argue that we are continuing to progress towards a ‘post-modern era’, which centres on the ‘individualisation’ or ‘detraditionalisation’ arguments of Beck and Giddens; where structural factors, such as gender and social class are diminishing as the defining elements of the pathway a young person will take. In this study, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), a contemporary source of longitudinal data from the early 1990s onwards, is used to demonstrate a lack of evidence of detraditionalisation, or the weakening of structural factors in determining the outcomes of young people. To the contrary, the gap between those from advantaged and less advantaged backgrounds remains wide. Furthermore, this research augments and extends previous studies of educational and early labour market outcomes by providing more comprehensive and integrated statistical analyses of household, family and parental effects, using techniques for longitudinal data analysis which give insight into patterns of social inequality being replicated in current contexts. Evidence using 17 years of longitudinal panel data indicate that, over time, family effects on school attainment and early labour market outcomes remain strong.

What keeps long term cohabitating couples together? I began to ask this question as I noticed more and more heterosexual people living together in long term committed relationships outside of marriage. Social commentators have decried cohabitating couples as less committed than married couples, and some research has agreed with this view, yet I personally had not seen this to be the case. As a response to this contradiction, I engage with the overall research question by exploring cohabitation and marriage decisions among ten long term heterosexual cohabitating couples as well as how the construct of commitment operates in their daily lives through a series of individual in-depth interviews. Through their stories, I situate long term heterosexual cohabitation as an outcome of a complex web of motivations, reasons, and rationales that share much in common with all cohabitating couples. I find commitment to be highly valued by these couples and produced through daily processes that bring couples closer together and heighten the cost of ending the relationship, thereby elucidating the socio-cultural factors that make long term cohabitating couples feel like they’re “already married.” By asking couples about their household division of labor and their attitudes towards marriage, I also engage with research that points to long term cohabitating couples as sites of gender egalitarianism. While these couples were more egalitarian in their housework, this was not necessarily a product of a particular affinity for gender equality. Furthermore, the ways in which they spoke about housework as well as the ways they valued marriage and weddings demonstrate that traditional gender roles still play an influential role in intercouple interactions. In the final chapter, I offer a theoretical way forward for future research on heterosexual cohabitation and identify gaps in the research that this study helps to identify. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Archaeologists have long labored under the implicit assumption that the archaeological record is a direct reflection of past human behaviors. However, numerous cultural and environmental processes intervene between past behaviors and their reconstruction through archaeological inference. This study examines the interface between household archaeology and formation processes through the study of domestic materials from two contemporaneous sites in the Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador that were occupied by people who spoke the same language and belonged to the same regional political system. Ceren was a small village that was occupied for several decades before it was deeply buried by the eruption of Loma Caldera volcano. San Andres was a much larger center that also was affected by several eruptions, but did not experience long-term catastrophic abandonment or exceptional preservation. The research examines the effects of cultural formation processes, including reuse, discard, abandonment, and post-abandonment disturbance processes, and non-cultural formation processes, such as effects of catastrophic volcanic burial, and the effects of plants and animals. It compares the de facto refuse from Ceren with discarded materials from Ceren, and San Andres using the discard equation and methods developed in accumulations research to build a foundation for more generally applicable models to interpret household remains in western El Salvador and throughout Mesoamerica.

An evaluation of BioSand Filters, a method of Household Water Treatment, was conducted in Posoltega, Nicaragua, with objectives of determining the long-term filtration efficiency and the rate of sustained use. Field methods included microbial and turbidity water quality testing and interviews with filter users regarding the operation, maintenance and perceptions towards the filters. Of the 234 BioSand Filters installed in 1999 and 2004, only 24 were found to still be in operation. The average filtration efficiency was found to be 98% for total coliforms, 96% for E. coli and 88% for turbidity. Statistically significant effects on filtration efficiency were detected for the source contamination, the inverse of the flow rate, and the standing depth of water over the sand. A follow-up laboratory QA/QC procedure was undertaken to validate the field methods, which consisted of membrane filtration (MF) with m coliBlue24 growth media, and SolarCult dipslides. It was found that MF with m coliBlue24 produced useful reproducible results, and is an appropriate method for conducting field water quality testing. The dipslides were found to be an appropriate tool for testing source water quality and assessing the applicability of BioSand Filters, and may be an appropriate tool for local health representatives to promote safe water practices within the community. However, the dipslides should not be used as a presence / absence test for drinking water due to the high limit of detection. The low rate of sustained use (10%) is mostly a result of the structural failure of the concrete walls of the filter, in particular for those filters from 2004. Anecdotal evidence suggests insufficient quality control during the construction. The filtered water and the stored post-filtered water did not meet the WHO guidelines for safe drinking water on account of the presence of E. coli. Also identified were improper maintenance practices and unsafe storage of post-filtered water. These problems could have been addressed through the development of a holistic water system approach, such as the World Health Organization Water Safety Plan.

Contaminated drinking water is one of the major health challenges facing people in the developing world. The country of India leads the world in under age five mortality due to diarrheal disease, which is attributed to water and food contamination. While the Indian government has made progress in expanding access to improved water sources in the last decade, the microbiological quality of the water is unpredictable. Point of use household water treatment systems can provide clean drinking water for people who do not have access to a clean water source. This report examines five non-electrical point of use household water treatment options which have been extensively field-tested and could potentially be used in rural, South Indian villages: chlorine disinfectant, chlorine-flocculant sachets, ceramic filters, biosand filters and solar disinfection. A case study of a village in Andhra Pradesh is presented that highlights the factors to consider when introducing a new POU technology into a community.