The value of remote sensing data is particularly evident where an areal monitoring is needed to provide information on the earth's surface development. The use of temporal high resolution time series data allows for detecting short-term changes. In Kogi State in Nigeria different vegetation types can be found. As the major population in this region is living in rural communities with crop farming the existing vegetation is slowly being altered. The expansion of agricultural land causes loss of natural vegetation, especially in the regions close to the rivers which are suitable for crop production. With regard to these facts, two questions can be dealt with covering different aspects of the development of vegetation in the Kogi state, the determination and evaluation of the general development of the vegetation in the study area (trend estimation) and analyses on a short-term behavior of vegetation conditions, which can provide information about seasonal effects in vegetation development. For this purpose, the GIMMS-NDVI data set, provided by the NOAA, provides information on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in a geometric resolution of approx. 8 km. The temporal resolution of 15 days allows the already described analyses. For the presented analysis data for the period 1981-2012 (31 years) were used. The implemented work flow mainly applies methods of time series analysis. The results show that in addition to the classical seasonal development, artefacts of different vegetation periods (several NDVI maxima) can be found in the data. The trend component of the time series shows a consistently positive development in the entire study area considering the full investigation period of 31 years. However, the results also show that this development has not been continuous and a simple linear modeling of the NDVI increase is only possible to a limited extent. For this reason, the trend modeling was extended by procedures for detecting structural breaks in the time series.

A Story of placement looks at displacement in Colombia during three different time periods: 529 years ago during colonization, today, and a speculative scenario in 10 years.  The project springs from traditional ecological knowledge developed by indigenous Colombian communities, and applies it to create a habitat proposal for a displaced community in Medellin.   How can we generate stories of placement in the near future?  The Kogi, Arhuaco, Kankuamo, and Wiwa descendants from the Taironas, have been living in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta after being displaced from the lowlands during the colonization. They have remained isolated from the western cultures preserving their knowing and being and living harmoniously with their territory. Colombia has today around 5.6 million people in a situation of displacement because of the armed conflict, natural disasters, or big land acquisitions by corporations. The project develops a progressive, sustainable, portable, and productive housing solution for communities in  a situation of displacement, inspired by indigenous communities from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the North of Colombia.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Introduction: The Universal Safety Precautions (USP) are a set of principles including practices and protocols, which is meant to reduce or prevent occupational exposures to blood borne pathogens among health care workers (HCWs), during the course of their duties in health care settings. Globally and in Nigeria, significant number of HCWs are currently being exposed to blood and other body fluids while working in the hospital setting (Amoran, 2013; Samuel et al., 2008; Akinboro et al., 2012; Ajibola et al., 1994; Okechukwu et al., 2012). These exposures contribute annually to about 16,000 HCV infections and 66,000 HBV infections among HCWs worldwide (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2003) and about 1000 cases of HIV per annum in Nigeria since the first recorded case in 1984 (Okechukwu et al., 2012; Patricia et al., 2007). The objectives of the study were to describe the awareness of the USP among HCWs in Kogi State Specialist Hospital (KSSH), Lokoja and to describe the adherence to the USP among HCWs at KSSH. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs working in departments where contacts with patients' blood and other body fluids are possible in KSSH. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Analysis of the data collected was with Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V23.0.0 for Mac. Results: Of the 125 participants that returned their questionnaires, 37.6% were nurses, 17.6% were doctors and the remainder were laboratory staff, dentists and hospital attendants. Sixty four percent (64%) of them were females, 49.6% had tertiary education while their average age was 38.5 years. Awareness of and adherence to the USP were observed to be 5.6% and 2.4% respectively. Statistically, complete awareness of the USP was not significantly associated with complete adherence to the USP. More so, 3% and 2.2% of the participants with the number of years in services within the ranges of 5-9 years and 1-4 years respectively had complete adherence to the USP. Statistically significant association was only noted between participants' age and complete adherence to the USP. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) were the two USP principles with the lowest levels of awareness and adherence, with 46% and 47.6% on awareness respectively and, 43.8% and 44.6% on adherence respectively. Conclusion: The levels of awareness of and adherence to the USP among the HCWs in KSSH were observed to be very low. There is an urgent need for capacity building of the HCWs on the USP in the form of trainings, and in the long term, there is need to conduct a study to assess possible reasons for the observed outcome.

Quantitative analysis of trends in vegetation cover, especially in Kogi state, Nigeria, where agriculture plays a major role in the region’s economy, is very important for detecting long-term changes in the phenological behavior of vegetation over time. This study employs the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) [global inventory modeling and mapping studies 3g (GIMMS)] data from 1983 to 2011 with detailed methodological and statistical approach for analyzing trends within the NDVI time series for four selected locations in Kogi state. Based on the results of a comprehensive study of seasonalities in the time series, the original signals are decomposed. Different linear regression models are applied and compared. In order to detect structural changes over time a detailed breakpoint analysis is performed. The quality of linear modeling is evaluated by means of statistical analyses of the residuals. Standard deviations of the regressions are between 0.015 and 0.021 with R2 of 0.22–0.64. Segmented linear regression modeling is performed for improvement and a decreasing standard deviation of 33%–40% (0.01–0.013) and R2 up to 0.82 are obtained. The approach used in this study demonstrates the added value of long-term time series analyses of vegetation cover for the assessment of agricultural and rural development in the Guinea savannah region of Kogi state, Nigeria.

This project engages with the Kogi, an Amerindian indigenous people from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in northern Colombia. Kogi leaders have been engaging in a consistent ecological-political activism to protect the Sierra Nevada from environmentally harmful developments. More specifically, they have attempted to raise awareness and understanding among the wider public about why and how these activities are destructive according to their knowledge and relation to the world. The foreign nature of these underlying ontological understandings, statements, and practices, has created difficulties in conveying them to mainstream, scientific society. Furthermore, the pre-determined cosmological foundations of Kogi society, continuously asserted by them, present a problem to anthropology in terms of suitable analytical categories. My work aims to clarify and understand Kogi environmental activism in their own terms, aided by anthropological concepts and “Western” forms of expression. I elucidate and explain how Kogi ecology and public politics are embedded in an old, integrated, and complex way of being, knowing, and perceiving on the Sierra Nevada. I argue that theoretically this task involves taking a realist approach that recognises the Kogi’s cause as intended truth claims of practical environmental relevance. By avoiding constructivist and interpretivist approaches, as well as the recent “ontological pluralism” in anthropology, I seek to do justice to the Kogi’s own essentialist and universalist ontological principles, which also implies following their epistemological rationale. For this purpose, I immersed myself for two years in Kogi life on the Sierra, and focused on structured learning sessions with three Mamas, Kogi spiritual leaders and knowledge specialists. I reflect on how this interaction was possible because my project was compatible with the Mamas’ own desire to clarify and contextualise the Kogi ecological cause. After presenting this experience, I analyse the material as a multifaceted, interrelated, and elaborate system to reflect the organic, structured composition of Kogi and Sierra, also consciously conveyed as such by the Mamas. I hereby intend to show how the Kogi reproduce, live, and sustain this system through daily practices and institutions, and according to cosmological principles that guide a knowledgeable, ecological relationality with things, called ‘the Law of Origin’. To describe this system, I develop a correspondingly holistic and necessary integration of the anthropological concepts of cosmology, ontology, epistemology, and ecology. Based on this, I argue that Kogi eco-politics are equally embedded in this system, and constitute a contemporary attempt to maintain their regulatory relations with the Sierra Nevada and complement their everyday care-taking practices and rituals. In Kogi terms, this continuity and coherence is a moral imperative and environmental necessity. Thus framing and clarifying Kogi eco-politics may enrich insights into the nature of indigenous ecological knowledge, and may help address environmental problems.