Investigation on form and energy use of the rural residences in Beijing and surrounding cold areas under the self-sufficiency perspective

As a design theory on energy-saving housing, Self-sufficiency house is suited to the environment conditions of cold rural areas in China. Investigation on the rural residence form and energy use is the important foundation to carry out the research and design practice on self-sufficiency house. Taking Beijing and its surrounding rural areas as target, the paper combs current situation and technical requirements of rural residence based on self-sufficiency perspective. After surveying general residential condition and data, it analyzes the form, function, energy use and heating technology of rural residence, which will provide basic data and reference for post-study.

Timing of first antenatal care visits and number of items of antenatal care contents received and associated factors in Ethiopia: multilevel mixed effects analysis

Background Receiving quality antenatal care (ANC) from skilled providers is essential to ensure the critical health circumstances of a pregnant woman and her child. Thus, this study attempted to assess which risk factors are significantly associated with the timing of antenatal care and the number of items of antenatal care content received from skilled providers in recent pregnancies among mothers in Ethiopia. Methods The data was extracted from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016. A total of 6645 mothers were included in the analysis. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis and multilevel mixed Negative binomial models were fitted to find the factors associated with the timing and items of the content of ANC services. The 95% Confidence Interval of Odds Ratio/Incidence Rate Ratio, excluding one, was reported as significant. Results About 20% of the mothers initiated ANC within the first trimester, and only 53% received at least four items of antenatal care content. Being rural residents (IRR = 0.82; 95%CI: 0.75–0.90), wanting no more children (IRR = 0.87; 95%CI: 0.79–0.96), and the husband being the sole decision maker of health care (IRR = 0.88; 95%CI: 0.81–0.96), were associated with reduced items of ANC content received. Further, birth order of six or more (IRR = 0.74; 95%CI: 0.56–0.96), rural residence (IRR = 0.0.41; 95%CI: 0.34–0.51), and wanting no more children (IRR = 0.61; 95%CI: 0.48–0.77) were associated with delayed antenatal care utilization. Conclusions Rural residences, the poorest household wealth status, no education level of mothers or partners, unexposed to mass media, unwanted pregnancy, mothers without decision-making power, and considerable distance to the nearest health facility have a significant impact on delaying the timing of ANC visits and reducing the number of items of ANC received in Ethiopia. Mothers should start an antenatal care visit early to ensure that a mother receives all of the necessary components of ANC treatment during her pregnancy.

Factors affecting fuelwood production and consumption in Greece

Wood, one of the most important renewable energy sources (RES), has been used as a fuel since ancient times. Wood was the first material to be used for energy production. Gradually its use as a fuel dwindled as other sources gained popularity. However, following the oil crises of the 1970s, various countries switched to RES and in particular to wood as a primary heat source. The current paper attempts to highlight the factors that affect fuelwood production and consumption in Greece in recent decades and to propose a number of policy measures. More specifically, fuelwood production in Greece over the last decades is constantly declining mainly due to overgrazing, forest fires, urban sprawl, poor management and inadequate transport infrastructures; all these factors considerably impact the country’s forest productive capacity. Several decades ago, fuelwood was in great demand in Greece. Gradually, however, it lost its popularity to other heating fuels and was only used in rural residences or in a small number of urban homes. The last decade, however, owing to the deep economic crisis afflicting the country, there has been a marked increase in the demand for fuelwood mainly by low-income households.

Passive Energy-Saving Optimal Design for Rural Residences of Hanzhong Region in Northwest China Based on Performance Simulation and Optimization Algorithm

The rural residences of Northwest China are characterized by a state of high energy consumption and low comfort due to the limited economic level and awareness of energy-saving compared with the urban residences. To remedy this, appropriate passive design strategies should be adopted first, in order to provide a design mode with low energy consumption and low cost for rural residences under the premise of thermal comfort. In this paper, taking Hanzhong region (Shaanxi Province, China) as an example, we establish a benchmark model based on a field survey and develop an optimization process by combining EnergyPlus simulation software, the MOBO optimization engine, and weighted sum method. The action mechanisms of passive design parameters, including the building orientation, length–width ratio, building envelope parameters, external shading system, and window–wall ratio, on heating, cooling, and total energy consumption are analyzed, and the quantitative relationships between single-parameter and energy consumption are established. Then, the mutually restricted indices of total energy consumption and initial investment cost are taken as optimization objectives, and 17 design parameters are selected as the optimization variables. The NSGA-II algorithm is adopted to conduct the multi-parameter, multi-objective optimization design for rural houses in Hanzhong area, through coupling of the EnergyPlus and MOBO software. In this way, Pareto solutions are obtained and the value distributions of the multi-objectives and design parameters are analyzed. Based on the actual requirements of decision-makers and using the weight method, three design schemes focusing on different performance tendencies are proposed. The results indicate that by using the proposed optimization process, the building energy consumption can be significantly reduced while taking initial investment costs into account, where the energy-saving rate is in the range of 31.9%–61.5%. When the EC/IC ratio is 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2, the energy-saving rate can reach 51.5%, 57.8%, and 43.5%, respectively. It can provide a beneficial pattern for the energy-saving design and renovation of rural residences in Hanzhong area of China.

Urban-Rural Gaps in Breastfeeding Practices: Evidence From Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Objectives: Breastfeeding rates are decreasing rapidly in many low and middle-income countries, disproportionately affecting urban residences. We use data from Lao People’s Democratic Republic to identify primary mechanisms underlying the urban-rural gap in breastfeeding practices.Methods: We used data from the 2017 Lao Social Indicator Survey II. Residence was categorized as large-urban (>1 million), small-urban (<1 Million), and rural. Multivariable logistic regression provided odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to identify factors attributing to the urban-rural differences in complying with World Health Organization’s breastfeeding recommendations for children <24 months.Results: Mothers in large-urban residences had 3.78 (95% confidence intervals: 1.19, 11.95) and 4.67 (95% CI: 2.30, 9.46) higher odds of non-compliance with exclusive and complementary breastfeeding recommendations, respectively, than mothers living in rural areas in bivariate models. Breastfeeding differentials between small urban and rural residences were largely explained by differences in maternal education and household wealth.Conclusion: Results of our paper suggest large disparities in breastfeeding practices between large-urban, small-urban, and rural residences.

Práticas de Linguagem na Amazônia Paraense

Resumo Esta pesquisa apresenta a visão de estudantes, professores e coordenação sobre as práticas de linguagens de estudantes da Amazônia Paraense em cursos técnicos integrados ao Ensino Médio, a partir da Pedagogia da alternância. Os estudantes têm aulas em um período acadêmico e em outro período retornam às suas residências interioranas para unir os conhecimentos recebidos na escola, às práticas laborais de onde vivem. Esta investigação versa sobre jovens e adultos de cinco municípios paraenses: Abaetetuba, Castanhal, Magalhães Barata, Santa Isabel e São Domingos do Capim, que trabalham na cadeia produtiva da agricultura familiar, em especial, na produção de açaí, farinha, pesca, pecuária para corte e produção de leite. São estudantes do Curso de Agropecuária do PROEJA – Programa Nacional de Integração da Educação Profissional com a Educação Básica na Modalidade de Educação de Jovens e Adultos. Pretende-se demonstrar neste estudo, a construção dos letramentos durante este ensino. Selecionou-se autores que investigam pedagogia da alternância, educação do campo e letramentos para respaldar a parte teórica da pesquisa. Optou-se pela metodologia quali-quantitativa, na modalidade de estudo de caso e com a aplicação de questionários semiestruturados e análise documental. Os resultados obtidos revelaram que os professores trabalham os letramentos, entretanto, as práticas pedagógicas nem sempre acontecem de forma dialógica ao contexto sociocultural e laboral dos estudantes. Ao final da pesquisa, foi evidenciado que as práticas de letramentos devem ser pensadas para o desenvolvimento social, político e econômico dos estudantes em um ambiente que interligue os conhecimentos prévios dos estudantes a essas práticas. Palavras-chave: Linguagens. Pedagogia da Alternância. PROEJA. AbstractThis research present the students, teachers and coordination view on the language practices of students from the Paraense Amazon in technical courses integrated to High School, from the Pedagogy of alternation: students have classes in one academic period and in another period they return to their rural residences to combine the knowledge received at school, with the work practices where they live. This research is about young people and adults from five cities in Pará: Abaetetuba, Castanhal, Magalhães Barata, Santa Isabel and São Domingos do Capim, who work in the family agriculture production chain, especially in the production of açaí, flour, fishing, livestock for cutting and milk production. They are students of the Agricultural Course of PROEJA - National Program for the Integration of Professional Education with Basic Education in the Modality of Education of Youth and Adults. It is intended to demonstrate in this study, the construction of literacies during this teaching. Authors were selected who investigate alternation pedagogy, rural education and literacies to support the theoretical part of the research. We opted for the qualitative and quantitative methodology, in the case study modality and with the application of semi-structured questionnaires and documentary analysis. The results obtained revealed that the teachers work the literacies, however, the pedagogical practices do not always happen in a dialogical way to the students' socio-cultural and work context. At the end of the research, it was evidenced that literacy practices should be designed for the social, political and economic development of students in an environment that links students' prior knowledge to these practices. Keywords: Languages, Alternation Pedagogy, PROEJA.

Research and Application of Solar Energy Heating System for Individual Household in Western Sichuan Plateau

In terms of the existing solar heating system, its structure and control system are too complex and heat storage unit is too large, which makes it suitable for public buildings with large plot ratio or concentrated residential areas etc. But it is not suitable for rural residences with abundant solar energy resources, backward economic condition and scattered distribution of inhabitation. In this paper, we improve, optimize and integrate the existing solar heating system and design a new simple and reliable household solar heating system. In addition, we verify it by indoor temperature test and calculation of solar fraction in an actual project.

Study on Passive Ventilation and Cooling Strategies for Cold Lanes and Courtyard Houses—A Case Study of Rural Traditional Village in Shaanxi, China

China’s research on and specific implementation of energy saving for buildings are mainly concentrated in urban areas, but according to 2016 statistics, the rural population accounts for 42.65% of the total population, so rural housing has considerable energy-saving potential. However, the degree of attention to the energy consumption of rural houses needs to be improved. Regarding the research on and implementation of passive energy-saving strategies for residences, compared with centralized urban high-rise residences, rural residences mainly have independent courtyards, with a flexible layout and easier transformation. In this study, a system that uses the common cold lanes in traditional villages and buildings’ exterior walls was constructed, and the indoor spaces of courtyard buildings in southern Shaanxi were completely passively cooled in summer. This system can be completely separated from the supply of artificial energy by relying on the accumulation and buoyancy effects of air in patios and cold lanes and the hot-pressure ventilation in buildings to cool the buildings and greatly improve indoor ventilation efficiency. As the building is ventilated and cooled, the air wall formed in the system can effectively prevent direct contact between the outdoor and indoor temperatures and reduce the impact of thermal wall radiation on the interior. In previous studies on the passive design of courtyard houses, scholars considered the effect of thermal wall radiation on indoor temperature in simulations. Therefore, in this study, we also separately calculated whether to consider the difference between the situation with and without wall heat radiation (WHR) when simulating thermal conversion. The final results show that when the cooling system was adopted, the annual cooling load of the whole building was 4786.494 kW·h without WHR. However, with WHR, the cooling load reduction was 2989.128 kW·h, a difference of 1797.336 kW·h.