Introdução: A hanseníase, doença infecciosa crônica, causada pelo bacilo Mycobacterium leprae, tem seu mecanismo de transmissão não totalmente esclarecido. A transmissão ativa pode estar associada a movimentos migratórios, condições sociais ou outras fontes de infecção (como a manutenção do bacilo no ambiente). Objetivos: Descrever o padrão espacial do risco relativo da hanseníase em menores de 15 anos no estado da Bahia; identificar possíveis agrupamentos espaciais e investigar a possível associação entre o risco relativo da hanseníase e fatores socioeconômicos e ambientais. Metodologia: Este estudo ecológico utilizou dados do Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN) de 2005 a 2011, do Censo Demográfico do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística de 2010, da Federação das Indústrias do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Informações Demográficas e Socioeconômicas do Departamento de Informática do SUS, bases cartográficas digitais de dados ambientais do IBGE e bases cartográficas digitais do estado da Bahia e estados vizinhos. Os riscos relativos por município foram padronizados pela covariável gênero. A análise de varredura espacial com o programa SaTScan permitiu verificar a existência de agrupamentos espaciais do tipo alto e/ou baixo. O segundo estágio da análise consistiu em verificar a possível associação entre risco relativo da hanseníase como variável dependente e variáveis socioeconômicas e ambientais como explicativas, através de análises de regressão hierárquica multivariada não espacial e espacial, de acordo com quadro conceitual definido previamente. Resultados: Durante o período de estudo foram notificados 1.674 casos, que representam 7,87% dos casos totais. As taxas em menores de 15 anos, padronizadas por gênero, diminuiu de 0,89/10.000 em 2005 para 0,57 em 2011. A estatística de varredura espacial identificou 4 agrupamentos de risco alto e 6 de risco baixo. No modelo de regressão hierárquica, o risco relativo foi associado positivamente com porcentagem de corpos dágua, Índice de Gini, porcentagem de população urbana, número médio de moradores em domicílios particulares permanentes, e negativamente com o número de residentes nascidos na Bahia. Conclusão: Este estudo mostrou que a hanseníase ainda está ativa no Nordeste do Brasil, principalmente em ambientes urbanos. Embora o risco relativo da hanseníase tenha diminuído, ele ainda permanece muito alto. Migrações de assentamentos rurais para as cidades, bem como mais pessoas vivendo em domicílios e desigualdades sociais são resultados de um processo histórico no nordeste do Brasil, que dão suporte para a continuidade do processo de transmissão da doença. A associação entre o risco relativo da hanseníase e corpos dágua na escala geográfica proposta, indica que a hipótese que associa a M. leprae e ambientes úmidos ainda não pode ser descartada. / Background: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae. Its mechanism of transmission has not been completely understood. The active transmission may be associated with people migration, social conditions or other sources of infection (such as maintenance of bacilli in the environment). Objectives: To describe the spatial pattern of the relative risk of leprosy in children under 15 years old in the State of Bahia; to identify possible spatial clusters and to investigate the possible association between the relative risk of leprosy with socioeconomic and environmental factors. Methods: This ecological study used data from the Brazilian Disease Notification System (Sistema Nacional de Informação de Agravos de Notificação SINAN) for the studied period of 2005 to 2011; Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica (IBGE 2011), Department of Data and Information Technology (Informações Demográficas e Socioeconômicas do Departamento de Informática do SUS DATASUS, 2010) and the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro FIRJAN (2010), Cartographic base of municipalities in Bahia and surrounding States corresponded to the shape files from the Brazilian Demographic Census. Relative risks were calculated accounting for the respective covariate gender. The spatial scan analysis with SaTScan program allowed to verify the existence of high and/or low spatial clusters. The second stage of the analysis consisted of verifying possible associations between the relative risks of leprosy as a dependent variable, and socio-economic and environmental variables as independent. This was performed using a multivariate regression analysis according to a previously defined conceptual framework. Results: During the study period, 1,674 cases were reported, representing 7.87% of the total cases. Overall rates have decreased from 0.88/10 000 in 2005 to 0.52 in 2011. Spatial scan statistics identified 4 high-risk and 6 low-risk clusters. In the regression model, after allowing for spatial dependence, relative risks were associated with higher percentage of water bodies, higher Gini index, higher percentage of urban population, larger average number of dwellers by permanent residence and smaller percentage of residents born in Bahia. Conclusions: This study showed that leprosy is still active in the Northeast of Brazil, especially in urban environments. Although relative risks of leprosy in Bahia have been decreasing, they remain very high. Migration of rural settlements to the cities, more people living in households and social inequalities are the result of a historical process in northeastern Brazil, that support the continuity of the disease transmission process. The association between relative risks of leprosy and water bodies in the proposed geographic scale indicates that hypothesis linking M. leprae and humid environments cannot be discarded.

La Mauritanie est caractérisée par un climat sec et chaud, Saharien au nord et sahélien au sud. Les vents au nord-est, sont fréquents et favorisent la progression de l'ensablement. La saison des pluies est très hétérogène sur le plan spatio-temporel. Une grande partie du pays reçoit moins de 300 mm / an. Au cours des trente dernières années, trois grandes sécheresses ont été enregistrées au cours desquelles les précipitations ont été inférieures à 35 à 70% de la moyenne. Les principales ressources agro-pastorales du pays sont: l'agriculture, les ressources en terres, l'élevage, les ressources en eau et la population rurale. Au niveau macroéconomique, le secteur rural, en dehors de la pêche artisanale, occupe environ 56% de la population et joue un rôle important dans l'économie nationale : il contribue à plus de 17,5% du PIB, soit environ 68 milliards d'ouguiyas en 2011. De nombreuses contraintes, défis et opportunités peuvent être identifiées:1)En termes de contraintes, on peut inclure: pluies insuffisantes et irrégulières et inondations, faible productivité de la production agricole et pastorale, exode rural. 2)En termes d'opportunités: décentralisation, situation géographique du pays, ressources foncières du pays, une classe d'entrepreneurs ayant des capacités financières et un bon réseau de communication. Cette thèse montre que la Mauritanie dispose d'un potentiel important qui est loin d'être pleinement exploité, en dépit d'importants investissements, notamment dans le secteur irrigué. Bien que les facteurs climatiques ont une responsabilité majeure dans la situation actuelle, cette thèse évalue le poids des aspects techniques, socio-économiques, structurelles, les facteurs organisationnels. / Mauritania is characterized by a dry climate and hot Sahara to the north and Sahelian to the south. Winds dominated ortheast, are frequent and promote the progression of silting. The rainy season is very heterogeneous in the spatio-temporal plane. Much of the country receives less than 300 mm / year. During the last thirty years, three major droughts were recorded during which rainfall was less than 35 to 70% on average. The main agro-pastoral resources of the country are: Agriculture, Land resources, the breeding, Water Resources, The rural population. At the macroeconomic level, the rural sector, apart from small-scale fisheries, occupies about 56% of the population and plays an important role in the national economy and contributes more than 17.5% to the GDP, or about 68 billion of Ouguiyas in 2011. Numerous constraints, challenges and opportunities can be identified : 1) In terms of constraints, may have included: inadequate and erratic rainfall and flood inundation, the low productivity of agricultural and pastoral production, the rural exodus. 2) In terms of opportunities: discentralization, the location of the country, the land resources of the country, an entrepreneurial class with a financial capacity, the communications network. This Phd Thesis shows that Mauritania has a significant potential that is far from being fully exploited, despite significant investments, particularly in the irrigated sector. Although climatic factors have a major responsibility the current situation, this thesis evaluates the weight of technical, socio-economic, structural, organizational factors.

Magister Public Health - MPH / This is a cross sectional survey study that explored determinant factors contributing to home child delivery and influence of traditional birth attendances on place of delivery in Rungwe District, Tanzania.The study focussed on three main aspects namely factors (socio-economic, cultural and knowledge) that influence women to deliver at health facilities and those who deliver ta home. Reasons/factors associated with the acceptability of health services and influence of traditional birth attendaces on place of delivery and whether accessibility to health services and traditional birth attendants influence women to decide the place of delivery. The study was descriptive cross-sectional in nature where a multistage random sampling procedure was used to select 8 wards and 16 villages. A systematic sampling was used to determine household interval in each village. Only one woman with at least one child was chosen in a household using a random sampling. In case of the absence of a woman with at least one child in a house falling in the interval, then the next house was considered. A total of 400 women with at least one child were selected at random from household cluster sample from all four divisions in Rungwe district. They were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaire. The participation rate was 100 % in both divisions. The age of the women ranged from 19-49 years with the mean age of 31 years (Std dev 7.5). Data entry and analysis were done using the quantitative statistics with Epi Info 2002 software. Results were presented using descriptive statistics, figures and tables, and analytical statistics, using Student’s t-test and chi-square. A total of 400 women were interviewed, among them, it showed that there were good attendance for antenatal care 395 (98.75%) and only 5 (1.25%) did not attend antenatal care. However, 243 (60.8%) of women interviewed had incidence of home delivery and 157 (39.3%) had incidence of health facility delivery. Home deliveries in a surveyed area are commonly assisted by unskilled persons, and consequently carry increased risks to the mother and to the new-born baby. Improvement of quality and accessibility of health care services by the health facility should involve harmonic balance between health service provider and beneficiaries in order to change the attitude towards minimizing the practice of home child delivery in Rungwe district, in Mbeya region, in Tanzania as awhole and elsewhere in the world.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Background: Professional health assistance is a significant indicator in monitoring progress towards Millennium Development Goal five to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters and child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. It is also significant that mothers deliver their babies in an appropriate setting, where life saving equipment and hygiene can also help reduce the risk of complications that may cause death or illness to mother and child. But in developing countries access to health services is still an issue. Objective: From a fundamental research view point, this study aims to investigate the determinants of place of delivery and professional health providers by analysing the factors that are likely to influence young mothers’ accessibility and use of prenatal facilities in the developing world. Specifically in Kenya, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Guyana and Haiti. Methodology: Univariet and bivariet analysis were performed to determine a relation or association between dependent and independent variables. Using secondary data from Demographic and Health Survey secondary data requested from the DHS selected between 2005 and 2010, the analysis was performed by means of SPSS software. Bringing together the demographic variables and access and the use of health services related variables, the study captures the differences and similarities across these countries. Results: The study has identified the main factors influencing the use of professional health providers and health facilities according to the variables examined from the DHS. The finding showed the use health facilities for delivery, professional health providers were influenced by economic status of young mothers, level of education, place of residence, religion, marital status, in all six countries. Access to health facilities was much influence availability of transport, the presence of health providers at facilities and availability of drugs at facilities. Family members’ knowledge about the importance of delivering a baby at health facilities was found to be the strongest predictors of use of health facilities for delivery in all six countries. These findings suggest that these factors cited are associated with access and use of professional health providers and health facilities, and should be the target of interventions aimed to increase the use of prenatal facilities and professional health providers among young women in these countries in order to improve maternal and child health in accordance with Millennium Development Goals four and five.

In South Africa all the major categories of violent crime (homicide, aggravated robbery, serious assault and rape) showed an increase during the early 2000s. More than half of the total offences that were committed in South Africa during 2005 were aggressive offences. The goal of the study was to explore the perception of offenders regarding the triggering and contributing socio-economic factors to aggravated robbery with a view to inform rehabilitation and re-integration programmes for these offenders. Within the context of the interrelatedness of socio-economic factors such as poverty, inequality, unemployment and human rights, developmental social welfare and its underpinning theory of social development was an appropriate theoretical framework for the study. A qualitative research approach was utilised for the study and data was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews. Respondents for the study included maximum-term offenders that were serving an imprisonment sentence for aggravated robbery. The research findings indicate a reciprocal relationship between poverty, inequality, unemployment, intoxicating substances and intra- and interpersonal factors as possible triggering and contributing factors to aggravated robbery. Unemployment, which is exacerbated by a lack of education and skills development and linked to intra- and interpersonal factors, appears to be a dominant socio-economic factor that could contribute to or trigger aggravated robbery. The study concluded that rehabilitation programmes still lack a holistic, integrated developmental approach and hence do not prepare ex-offenders for full integration into society. The Department of Correctional Services was pointed out as a significant role-player in facilitating rehabilitation programmes that include skills development for job creation in a holistic, integrated developmental manner. Recommendations include that the Department of Correctional Services should seek partnerships and closer working relations with external service providers, and develop and implement integrated developmental rehabilitation programmes that will facilitate the creation of productive economic opportunities for offenders while they are still incarcerated and once they have been released back into the community. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

MSCAGR / Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness / Agricultural cooperatives have been generally promoted as a vehicle for smallholder agricultural development in South Africa. As a result, agricultural co-operative registrations in South Africa are increasing. However, research suggests that South African co-operatives have generally not been effective, successful and functional. The study determined factors affecting proper functioning of smallholder agricultural cooperatives in Lepelle Nkumpi Municipality. Simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 140 active cooperative members from 13 registered agricultural cooperatives. A list of agricultural cooperatives was obtained from the Department of Agriculture, Limpopo Province to facilitate the process. Primary data was collected using designed questionnaires and secondary data was collected from journal articles, internet and other recorded data. All questionnaires were handed out during face to face interviews held with participants. Discriminant analysis was used to analyse the data. The model was used to identify different factors which might have positive or negative effects on the functioning of agricultural cooperatives. The discriminant analysis results revealed that functional smallholder agricultural cooperatives were characterized by high level of training of members; interaction with other stakeholder and satisfaction with the training and assistance received. On the other hand Dysfunctional smallholder agricultural cooperative were characterized by high age group, low level of meeting attendance, large cooperative size, dissatisfaction of assistance and training received and high number of females. The weighting coefficients of the standardized canonical discriminant coefficients of the independent variables showed that variables that discriminated between functional and dysfunctional cooperatives were: cooperative size (-0.852), interaction vi    with stakeholders to improve the level of skill (0.579), satisfaction with assistance provided (0.516), number of females in cooperative (-0.455), years in existence of cooperative (0.452), members participation in decision making (0.407) and age group (0.446). The finding obtained in this study could be quite useful to policy makers. This study recommended that government should intensify effort on cooperative training, extension service and assistance to support functioning of agricultural cooperatives in the study area. Cooperative members should also participate in decision making and attend cooperative meetings to acquire more agricultural information

The aim of this paper is to study to what extent socio-economic factors affect the grade in social studies 1b in upper secondary school at municipal level during the period of 2015-2021. The method in this study is a binomial logistic regression and the dependent variable is the grade, and the independent variables are gender, background, parental education level and certified teacher. The data for the dependent and the independent variables are collected from the Swedish National Agency for Education's database Siris at municipal level and for the upper secondary school for the college preparatory programs. Data for 30 municipalities was collected and categorized according to the municipal group division from 2017 of Sweden's Municipalities and Regions. Pierre Bourdieu's capital theory about how education has a social stratification function is used to explain the results from the binomial logistic regression.  The result of this paper indicates that socio-economic factors affect the grade. All the independent variables affect the grade in social studies during the different years. The independent variable parental education level affected the grade in 2015-2017 and 2020/2021. The independent variable gender affected the grade in 2017-2019. Certified teacher ratio affected the grade only in 2018/2019. The independent variable background affected the grade in 2017/2018. The binomial logistic regression indicates that the residual looks similar for all municipal groups A-C for almost all the years apart from in 2017/2018. Thus, the predictive power of the binomial logistic regression model is good for all municipal groups. The results indicate that socio-economic factors affect students' grades in social studies. This is relevant for professional teachers and school principals to be aware of in order to be able to provide all the students with an equal education regardless oft their socio-economic background.

E Nord-Cameroun comme toutes les zones arides et semi-arides de l’Afrique subsaharienne est confronté à la désertification qui est causée par les aléas climatiques et la surexploitation des ressources naturelles. L’une des conséquences est la baisse des rendements des cultures due à la dégradation des sols cultivables. Dans cette situation, l’une des voies pour améliorer le niveau de vie paysan est de développer la plantation des ligneux à usages multiples. L’introduction de l’A. senegal dans les années 90 dans les exploitations agricoles avait l’optique de restaurer la fertilité des sols et de diversifier les sources de revenus des agriculteurs par la production de gomme arabique. Malgré la multifonctionnalité de cet arbre et les efforts des projets pour sa vulgarisation, les résultats et les réactions des populations pour sa plantation restent peu concluants et sélectifs. La thèse identifie et analyse les facteurs socio-économiques et leurs effets sur la décision paysanne à planter A. senegal. La méthode est basée sur les enquêtes et entretiens semi-directs. Les résultats montrent que la plus grande production en gomme obtenue par une exploitation est de seulement 50 kg/ha/an. Toutefois les recettes des ventes éventuelles des autres produits des plantations complètent celles de la gomme. Les planteurs n’ont pas tous disposé d’information ni de formation suffisantes. Une plate forme de concertation est à mettre en place pour redéfinir les rôles des acteurs de la filière gomme. Pour une gestion durable des plantations d’A. senegal, les projets de développement et les décideurs doivent faire respecter les normes de différentiation des prix de la gomme. / The North Cameroon like all arid and semi-arid zones of African sub-Saharan is facing desertification caused by climatic factors and over exploitation of natural resources.One of the consequences is the decline of crop yields due to degradation of arable land. In this situation, promotion of multipurpose trees plantations can improve the farmers’ livelihood. The introduction of A. senegal in the 90’s in agricultural farms had the aim to restore soil fertility and diversify sources of income for farmers through the production of arabic gum. Despite the multifunction aspect of this tree and the involvement of different development projects for its extension, the results and reactions of local people to its plantation remain inconclusive and selective. The thesis identifies and analyzes the socio-economic factors and their effects on the farmers decision to plant A. senegal. The method is based on surveys and semi-structured interviews. The results show that the best gum yield observed on the exploitation is 50 kg / ha / year. However, the revenue can be increased with the sale of byproducts of A. senegal. Not all farmers are sufficiently informed or trained. A platform for dialogue is to be set in order to redefine the roles of stakeholders in the market chain. For the sustainable management of A. senegal plantations, development projects and policy makers need to meet the standards of gum price differentiation.

Aim: This study aims to examine the extent to which access to different socio-economic factors explains differences in the degree of trust in the judiciary system, and which factors are of importance for the differences in trust. The socio-economic factors referred to are annual earned income, degree of education, ownership of condominiums, active employment, gender, and age. The questions that will be answered are: What does a covariation between trust in the judiciary system and socio-economic factors look like? What impact do the socio-economic factors have, and which are the important variables that affect trust in the judiciary system? Method: A quantitative method has been used. The data material examined is the Crime Prevention Council's security survey from 2018. To answer the questions at issue, a multiple regression analysis has been made to visualize the covariance between socio-economic factors and trust in the judiciary system. Theories used are the theory of trust (Rothstein, 2003) and the theory about forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Results: The result found is that the socioeconomic factors examined in this study have a covariance towards trust. Important variables that affect trust in the judiciary are post-secondary education and gender, where women and people with a completed post-secondary education have higher trust. These relationships are both relatively strong positives that are of statistical significance and thus can be generalized to the population.

The purpose of this study was to identify and determine the risk factors for malnutrition among children under the age of 5 years in Kweneng West District of Botswana. A case control study was conducted. The cases consisted of 37 underweight children under the age of 5 (n=37), and the controls consisted of 76 children less than 5 years of age (n=76) recruited concurrently among the under-five children attending Letlhakeng Child Welfare Clinic on a monthly basis. The controls were of good nutritional status. Data collection was done using a combination of a review of records (child welfare clinic registers, and child welfare clinic cards) and structured questionnaires. Following placement of the data in regression models, the factors that were found to be significantly associated with child malnutrition were small number of daily meals taken by the child (Adjusted OR=19.04, 95% CI 3.24-112.13), lack of knowledge of methods of prevention of child malnutrition by the parent (Adjusted OR=4.71, 95% CI 1.41-15.82), parent’s unemployment (Adjusted OR=50.3, 95% CI 4.86-52.1), low birth weight (Adjusted OR=12.34, 95% CI 2.76-55.02), inadequate Vitamin A supplementation (Adjusted OR=13.27, 95% CI 1.94-90.46), child illness (OR=20.95, 95% CI 7.55-58.10), and child raised by a guardian (Adjusted OR=5.67, 95% CI 1.30-24.73). The findings from this study suggest that Socio-economic factors such as unemployment, a lack of knowledge about recommended infant and child feeding practices, the child raised by a guardian, and health-related factors such as low birth weight, inadequate Vitamin A supplementation, and child illness are predictors of malnutrition in under five. Therefore, increasing household food security and reinforcing educational interventions could contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of child malnutrition in the district / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)