Open defecation: risk factors for adverse outcomes in Indonesia

The increasing number of Indonesian population has caused serious issue of open defecation. Indonesia ranks the second large of open defecation prevalence in the world, after India. Human’s excrement was disposed in trench, drain, terrace, grassland, backwoods, forest, river, lake or other open spaces, thus, contaminates the water system. Open defecation can lead to the increasing risk of transmission of water-boene diseases of child morbidity in Indonesia. This study aimed at exploring different socio-economic and demographic factors of Indonesians who practice open defecation. Data were obtained from 49,627 female respondents of the 2017 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey. The data were examined utilizing descriptive and logistic regression. The results reveal that the practice of open defecation is significantly influenced by place of residence, household’s wealth quintile, and household’s water supply. The findings suggest the needs for toilet construction and water supply sustainability in public area as well as in poor neighbourhood to eliminate open defecation in the country.

The Development and Standardization of Chinese Urban Traffic Linguistic Landscape

Linguistic landscape in a city can not only serve as the informative signs in public area but also record the history and demonstrate the development and modernization with social order and community participation indication. It originates its researching base from social linguistics but develops as interdisciplinary in recent years stimulating deep interests with multi-perspectives. This thesis summarizes the features and developing trends of linguistic landscape researches in and abroad at the first. And with comparative study of typical traffic linguistic landscapes in Chinese and foreign cities, this thesis discusses the framework and categories of traffic linguistic landscape system and its improving role through different stages of time, focusing on the specific features and establishing principles of traffic linguistic landscape in Chinese urban cities.

A selection method of municipal solid waste reduction in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province

Waste management is an important activity in human life that aims to find solutions to the waste problem. The province and local governments in Indonesia are responsible for waste management. The volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) in West Nusa Tenggara province, specifically in East Lombok, reached 2.792 m3/day. The public area for waste processing is technically limited. In East Lombok, there are 58 Transfer Post (TPS) units, although the majority are not operational. In East Lombok, the majority of the population (86.9%) did not separate their MSW. The volume of MSW in East Lombok, particularly MSW from urban areas, is affected by population expansion; therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the best scenarios for implementation in the East Lombok district using four approaches: waste reduction through recycling, composting, incinerating and pyrolisis in the TPS. According to the modelling, scenarios 2 and 3 have the same impact on waste reduction. The percentage of total waste reduction can be seen. It has the potential to reduce complete waste by up to 50%. It applies to the method in East Lombok.

Possible Assessment of the Stability and Sustainability of Modern State Systems

Based on the analysis of scientific resources on the theory of government, political process and public policy, the authors substantiate a conceptual model for assessing the stability and sustainability of state systems. The model is based on empirical analysis of the stability and sustainability of state systems obtained through semi-structured interviews with experts. The authors’ approach includes four main parameters for assessing the stability and sustainability of state systems with the focus on the role of state institutions in coordinating modern politics. The authors emphasize that the notion of ‘transition from government to governance’ often discussed in Russian and foreign scientific literature only demonstrates the possible changes in the role of state institutions in the public area and directions of transformation of public policy, without directly imply that. In this case, it seems promising to search for such conditions that would direct the transformation, and to develop a conceptual framework for diagnosing the state systems’ capacity to change.

Empowering Women Through Mother Groups: A Case Study of Hanshposha Aama Samuha, Itahari- 20, Sunsari

Empowering of women has become the major aspect of growth of the financial system of a country. It is basically the manner of enhancement of social, economic, cultural and political standing of women, the conventionally disadvantaged, neglected ones, in the society. This study has been carried out in Itahari sub-metropolitan, Sunsari district. The central theme of this study is to assess the role of Aama Samuha for empowerment of women and social development. This study entertains both primary as well as secondary data. The primary data have been collected from the field through survey Questionnaire, semi-structure interview, and observation. The interview was focused mainly on empowerment of women through mothers group, problems faced by the members of MG, while working in the group, attitude of males toward mothers group and role of mothers group in social development. Mothers Group of Hanshposha has contributed much in social development like cleaning trails, making road, plantation on public area, financial support to local school, and construction of building for temples, financial support to helpless people and poor people and maintaining peace and harmony in the community.

Human Rhinoviruses Prevailed Among Children in the Setting of Wearing Face Masks in Shanghai, 2020

Background Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the predominant etiological agent of the common cold in children and adults. A recent study showed that the inhibitory effect of face masks on viral shedding of HRV was less prominent than that on other respiratory viruses. Considering that most Chinese people have worn face masks in public area since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, we aimed to find out whether HRV prevailed among children in 2020 and demonstrate the details of the epidemiological features of HRV under such a special circumstance. Methods We summarized the incidences of various respiratory virus infections in patients who visited the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University during 2018~2020, and genotyped HRV positive nasopharyngeal specimens collected from 316 inpatients and 72 outpatients that visited the hospital in 2020. Results There was a major prevalence of HRV among children in the latter half of 2020, with a clear seasonality that HRV-As prevailed in summer while HRV-Cs in autumn. HRV-As were more prone to cause severe lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), while HRV-Cs were closely associated with childhood wheezing. The predominant genotypes were A11, A28, A47, A82, A101, C40 and C43. Notably, A21, A82 and A101 took up larger proportions in severe cases than in non-severe cases. Conclusions Our findings described a major prevalence of HRVs among children in 2020, which highlight the unique transmitting pattern of HRV and help to narrow the targets for antiviral strategies.

Prevalence of unmasked and improperly masked behavior in indoor public areas during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of a stratified random sample from Louisville, Kentucky

Wearing a facial mask can limit COVID-19 transmission. Measurements of communities’ mask use behavior have mostly relied on self-report. This study’s objective was to devise a method to measure the prevalence of improper mask use and no mask use in indoor public areas without relying on self-report. A stratified random sample of retail trade stores (public areas) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, was selected and targeted for observation by trained surveyors during December 14–20, 2020. The stratification allowed for investigating mask use behavior by city district, retail trade group, and public area size. The total number of visited public areas was 382 where mask use behavior of 2,080 visitors and 1,510 staff were observed. The average prevalence of mask use among observed visitors was 96%, while the average prevalence of proper use was 86%. In 48% of the public areas, at least one improperly masked visitor was observed and in 17% at least one unmasked visitor was observed. The average prevalence of proper mask use among staff was 87%, similar to the average among visitors. However, the percentage of public areas where at least one improperly masked staff was observed was 33. Significant disparities in mask use and its proper use were observed among both visitors and staff by public area size, retail trade type, and geographical area. Observing unmasked and improperly masked visitors was more common in small (less than 1500 square feet) public areas than larger ones, specifically in food and grocery stores as compared to other retail stores. Also, the majority of the observed unmasked persons were male and middle-aged.