<p>The objective of the study was to explore the conditions of every day life of child-headed households in South Africa. Following research questions were developed:</p><p>• How do South African children who are the head of the household perceive his or her life situation and the role as the household-head?</p><p>• How are the relations with siblings and other relatives?</p><p>• What kind of support do they need?</p><p>In order to fulfil the objective an interview study with the design as a case study was con-ducted. Seven children and young adults who had been heading household since under the age of 18 were found to be interviewed about their conditions of life. The result is presented as six case studies and is then discussed in the light of earlier knowledge on the subject as well as focusing on unique and mutual experienced of the informants. The results strongly support results in earlier research on life conditions for Child-headed households (CHH). Children living in CHHs face immense challenges and difficulties in their every day life and the sup-port given is not enough. Conclusions that are made include that improving assistance must be offered both in the dimensions of prevention of children living alone and immediate support to children already living in CHHs.</p>

<p><strong>Title:</strong> The challenge of marketing water filters in Uganda</p><p> </p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this research is to assess why sales of the water filter (CrystalPur) is stagnant. The authors will investigate the viability of the approach used to market CrystalPur with help of the marketing mix after which necessary adjustments best fitted for the Ugandan market will be suggested.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method:</strong> This research takes a qualitative approach. Data collection method used was both interviews and documentation. Telephone interviews were conducted with the management of ATU, schools and health centers that have received the filter as a donation. The secondary data used were articles, related studies and books. Since it is a research based on a qualitative approach, the theories and the findings is synthesized to make implication regarding the study.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The investigation has shown that the target customers are not buying the filter because they doubt its functionality of providing safe water which has thus hindered its acceptance rate. Boiling water is the accepted method which thus makes filtering disadvantaged. Also the filters performance does not meet the expectation of the respondents due its fragility and slow flow rate. The price of the filter was shown to be very expensive and unaffordable by the target group. The channels used to create awareness are not effective due to the low literacy rate affecting the level of understanding. Lastly, the underdeveloped distribution channels have not enabled easy accessibility of the product.</p>

<p>Hammarby Sjöstad is a new district of southern Stockholm built with focus on reduced environmental impact by recirculation of materials and sustainability. The environmental goals aim to cut the water consumption by half and a separate storm water treatment. Thus, the wastewater will be more concentrated and will originate from the households only. The Sjöstad project includes the idea of a local treatment plant for the household wastewater. To evaluate this possibility, Sjöstadsverket, an experimental treatment plant was constructed. New wastewater treatment processes are tested and evaluated and compared to conventional methods including both aerobic and anaerobic treatment processes.</p><p>One of the aerobic treatment processes includes enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR or Bio-P) as the method for the removal of phosphorus. In biological phosphorus removal the wastewater is alternately being exposed to anaerobic and aerobic conditions, which favours a certain bacteria, which can accumulate more phosphorus than is required for their growth. For this phosphorus accumulation the bacteria need volatile fatty acids (VFA) to cover their energy demand, but normally there is a shortage in VFA in the incoming wastewater.</p><p>The main purpose of this master thesis work has been to create the best possible conditions in order to produce VFA by hydrolysis and fermentation of primary sludge. In this way the organic material in the incoming wastewater can be used in biological phosphorus removal.</p><p>The sludge temperature, total solids (TS) and retention time are regarded as important parameters for a successful biological phosphorus removal and a laboratory study was set up to investigate these conditions for the wastewater at the Hammarby Sjöstad experimental plant. These laboratory-scale hydrolysis experiments showed that high temperature and high TS favours VFA-production. The results have also shown that four to five days retention time is suitable at a process temperature higher than 23°C, but also that the retention time likely should be extended at lower temperatures.</p><p>In a full-scale process experiment, primary sludge was pumped from a primary clarifier to a hydrolysis tank and then back to the primary clarifier. The hydrolysis gave rise to increased VFA-production when TS was increased. A temperature difference between the primary sludge and the hydrolysis sludge of 3°C was observed. The reason behind the difference has not been determined, but is considered important, since the temperature affects the VFA-production. Further on, analyses with gas chromatograph (GC) have shown that acetate has been the most frequently occurring VFA, although significant levels of other VFA, such as propionate, has also been detected.</p><p>Phosphorus release tests in laboratory-scale, where phosphorus was released during an anaerobic phase and taken up during an aerobic phase, proved that biological phosphorus removal occurred at the full-scale experimental train.</p><p>The full-scale hydrolysis experiment has shown that the VFA contribution by the hydrolysis tank to the biological phosphorus removal was low. The main reason is that the sludge-flow through the hydrolysis tank has been insignificant compared to the incoming wastewater flow. The problem is most likely connected to the incoming wastewater characteristics, since the low share of suspended solids (SS) entailed that not enough organic material in the primary clarifier settled.</p> / I figur 57 på sidan 76 stämmer inte trendlinjernas ekvationer i den tryckta versionen. Dessa är nu korrigerade i den elektroniska versionen, så att rätt ekvationer finns i den aktuella figuren.

<p>In Malawi 2.5 % of the forest disappears each year. The use of firewood and charcoal, deriving from forest resources,</p><p>accounts for about 99 % of the household energy demand in Malawi and is a cause to the deforestation. The Government of</p><p>Malawi recently launched a programme called Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources Programme (PAESP) with the aim</p><p>to reduce the use of firewood and charcoal. One of the fuels included in the programme is the biomass briquette. The aim</p><p>with this study is to evaluate the viability of biomass briquettes as a sustainable alternative energy source to firewood and</p><p>charcoal for households in Malawi.</p><p>Research for the study was carried out during three months in Malawi. Visits were made to a number of briquette</p><p>production sites to study the manufacturing methods and to collect briquette samples. The briquettes were tested using</p><p>various methods and then compared with results for firewood and charcoal.</p><p>At the moment various production methods are used in Malawi, with a high difference in technical complexity and cost.</p><p>Machines produced from wood using very basic mechanics can apply similar pressure as more advanced metal pressers.</p><p>They also seem to be better suited than those made of metal, in terms of price and availability.</p><p>The majority of the briquette producers in Malawi use waste paper as base material. Although the paper briquettes are good,</p><p>other raw materials will be needed if the production is supposed to be significantly increased.</p><p>The briquettes burn well using the most common stoves in Malawi, including the commonly used charcoal stove. While</p><p>firewood is cheaper to use than other available fuels, the briquettes seem to be able to compete with the fuel costs for</p><p>charcoal.</p>

<p>The aim of this paper is to study intra household allocation of capital income by using data on Swedish observations. The 1991 tax reform was to change the taxation on capital income from a progressive to a flat tax system. Before the tax reform there were incentives to allocate capital income to the spouses with the lowest income of labor in order to reduce the total tax burden. The data describes the year of 1989 and 1993, those we choose to examine. Using Swedish data from LINDA database we estimate a quotient by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. The explaining variables in the model are chosen based on pre-studies regarding intra household allocation and we expect those to have an impact on the quota. We find a significant allocation before the tax reform due to the incentives to shift income. In comparison with the results from 1993 we find a significant change in the quota that could indicate reallocation.</p>

<p>According to earlier research farmer's crop orientation in developing countries mainly depends on farm size, large-scale farmers prefer cash crop while small-scale farmers prefer subsistence crops. The first aim of this study is to see if this hypothesis can be applied on six households in Babati District in rural Tanzania. The second aim is to investigate if other factors than farm size affect crop portfolio choice and the final aim is to see if those crop portfolio models can be improved. A case-study research design and qualitative interviews are used. The primary data is based on a fieldwork that took place from the 18th of February until the 7th of March 2009 in the study area.</p><p>From a theoretical perspective the underlying assumptions of the Marcel Fafchamp's model <em>Crop portfolio choice under multivariate risks </em>is discussed in connection to the result of the study.</p><p>Interviews were made with six households of different farm size. The result of the study indicates that both small-scale and large-scale farmers are using cash crops. The fact that all crops can be used for selling, gives also small-scale farmers in season with higher prices, an opportunity to sell a large share of their crops. It's thereby not possible to state that large-scale farmers devote a larger share of their land for cash crop than small-scale farmers do.</p><p> </p>

<p>More than 1 billion people in developing countries lack access to safe water and sanitation. Drinking water in these countries is often collected from unsafe sources outside the home. Even piped well water in the developing world can be unsafe due to inadequately maintained pipes, low pressure, intermittent delivery, lack of chlorination, and clandestine connections. Furthermore, drinking water often becomes contaminated after collection, either during transport or during storage in the home. Improvements in water supply, hygiene education and safe storage can reduce the spread of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea. However it is not an easy task to combat unsafe drinking water, and several factors have to be taken into account. Correct management of water at the household level is a vital factor in reducing contamination of water in areas where water is not available in the home, and often has to be transported for long distances before storage.</p><p>It is often a woman's responsibility to collect and store water. The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of women’s knowledge and perceptions of the risks associated with drinking water and waterborne diseases in Babati, Tanzania. Furthermore, the study sets out to investigate the methods utilized at the household-level to prevent waterborne diseases. Interviews were the key method to collecting primary data and the results present findings from 20 women in two villages in Babati. All of the respondents had access to community water pipes but none had taps in their household. Among the respondents who treated their water, the most common method of treatment was boiling. The study shows that there is a link between lived experience, perceptions of risk, and the way water is managed in the household.</p>

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine risk and protective factors associated with residential instability within a sample of rural low-income mothers. Residential instability was defined as two or more residential moves within the course of a year. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to compare residentially stable and residentially unstable participants in order to isolate the factors that differentiated the two groups. These factors were analyzed through life course and ecological theoretical perspectives. Significant factors associated with residential instability included childhood and adulthood contexts, as well as changes in family structures throughout the life course. Based on the findings from this sample, it could be conservatively estimated that 10 to 25% of rural low-income families with children were residentially unstable between 2000 and 2001. Previous research has pointed to the severe negative educational, social, and developmental impacts of residential instability on children. Findings from this study suggest that the children who are most at risk for future residential instability in any given year are likely to have experienced residential instability already, compounding the impact of residential instability on these children. This study also supports the previous finding that residential instability is transmitted across generations, with childhood residential instability predictive of residential instability in adulthood. Participants who had moved frequently during childhood were significantly more likely to be residentially unstable, as were participants who had been homeless within the two years previous to being surveyed. Participants who were sharing housing with relatives were also at risk of residential instability, due to strain on relationships between participants' families and the relatives with whom they were sharing housing. Relationship strain associated with residential instability also occurred between participants and their partners, with partnership separation significantly predictive of residential instability. Many residentially unstable participants went through cycles of moving in and out of relatives' and/or partners households, moving in and out with partners, or both. The connection between previous residential instability and subsequent residential instability was theorized to be associated with persistent poverty, and may also have indicated other destabilizing conditions. Difficulty in maintaining relationships or holding down a job, mental health problems, poor survival skills, or patterns of bad choices were all destabilizing conditions that could theoretically lead to residential instability. These destabilizing conditions may have often been associated with persistent poverty and their consequences may have been amplified by persistent poverty. / Graduation date: 2005

The purpose of this study was to determine what levels of community satisfaction and personal and household characteristics would result in a model of retirees and pre-retirees and their propensity to move. This study assessed the relationship between certain socio-demographic variables and feelings of overall satisfaction as well as satisfaction with specific aspects of their current community. Community size and tenure, preferred community size, and the preference of staying or moving were also explored. Satisfaction was measured by both a global question of satisfaction and through the construction of a Community Satisfaction Scale (CSS) and three subscales. A hypothesized model was tested using logistic regression. Age, gender, duration in community, agreement between current and preferred community size (metropolitan or nonmetropolitan), overall satisfaction, and satisfaction with quality of life factors in the community and environmental quality were statistically significant in the prediction of likelihood of moving at retirement. Variables, some of which were significantly related to the dependent variable in preliminary analyses (chi-square and t-tests), that were not found to be significant in the logistic regression model of the propensity to move were: education, marital status, employment, household size, health, previous moving experiences, and the subscale community safety. Three measures of personal and household economic resources were also not found to be significant. According to final model in this study, in the sample of 50 to 70 years in Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming, those who were younger, had lived in the community fewer years, were living in a community size not in agreement with the stated size of community they preferred, and were male were more likely to response a preference to move. The results indicate small-urban and semi-rural communities are the most preferred places to move. The open areas outside the incorporated towns and cities were most favored locations. A benefit of elderly migration research in the past, discussed at length in the review of the literature, is that retirees bring with them to the community the benefits described as the "mail box economy." Understanding the levels of satisfaction of current residents ages 50 to 70 may be as important as policies to attract new inmigrants. / Graduation date: 1995