Low-Budget Techniques for Road Network Mapping and Road Condition Assessment That Are Accessible to Transport Agencies in Developing Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 2634 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Espinet ◽  
Winnie Wang ◽  
Shomik Mehndiratta
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Rural Roads ◽  
Technical Capacity ◽  
Network Mapping

In rural areas of developing countries, the poor quality of road location and condition data—which in most cases are outdated or nonexistent—is a barrier to transport decision making and investment. Without good information about the transport infrastructure, the local administrations, national agencies, and international donors have difficulty prioritizing investments that will produce higher economic and social returns. Most local and national transport agencies in developing countries lack the specific technology, expensive equipment, and professionally trained staff to survey and collect data on rural roads. Lessons are shared from a pilot project that used an inexpensive technique to survey and assess the condition of road infrastructure in rural areas of Mozambique. Local transport engineers were provided with a smartphone app called RoadLab Pro to increase their awareness of new approaches, tools, and technologies. This pilot project aimed to build technical capacity in applying and replicating practices for use in the future while lowering the barriers to transport decision making and investment that asset management and data collection represent for low-capacity and underresourced transport agencies in developing countries.

Infrastructure Development of mHealth Systems in Developing Countries (Case Study: Implementation NusaHealth Apps in Yogyakarta Indonesia) (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surahyo Sumarsono ◽  
Peter M.A. van Ooijen ◽  
Widyawan Widyawan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health System ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Infrastructure Development

BACKGROUND The size of the Indonesian population and the shifting pattern of illness from infectious to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which leads to double disease burden, demand that Indonesia develop a variety of innovative efforts to control the numbers of NCDs. Moreover, NCDs are preventable and strongly influenced by lifestyle, therefore individual intervention to stimulate healthier lifestyle is important. One approach to support NCD programs is the use of mobile technology or mHealth. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work is to show the process of designing and developing a mobile health system, NusaHealth, which will be implemented in rural areas of Yogyakarta province. The NusaHealth system will be our pilot project to get better understanding and knowledge how mobile health solution answers the health problems in rural areas in terms of promotion and prevention health services. METHODS Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) seeks to address the challenges of developing a technology-based health management program. The development of the NusaHealth system starts from looking at the potential of health data that can be processed and enriched to become health information. The NusaHealth project builds a digital healthcare infrastructure involving universities, healthcare providers (hospitals, community health centers, clinics, health offices and others) and communities (including health volunteers) in a mHealth approach that puts patient at the center of health care. RESULTS The NusaHealth system has been realized through the process of design and development which involved experts and partners. Technical descriptions including supported device specifications, operating systems requirements, feature needed, user interface, data storage, interoperability and security assessment produced in the paper. Moreover, the infrastructure to connect mobile devices network with the hospital information system has been developed, as well as supporting systems such as SMS gateway and servers. CONCLUSIONS This paper proves that the process of designing and developing a mobile health solution for rural areas in developing countries needs to be comprehensive and the process of field implementation should involve related partners. While the NusaHealth pilot project in rural areas of Yogyakarta province was successfully implemented, further activities need to be implemented to enhance community health through development of formal mobile health system supported by local health district offices’ policies and regulations. Wider geographical areas will be a challenging opportunity in measuring whether this system is suitable in the context of developing country. CLINICALTRIAL None

Biotelemetry and Computer Analysis of Electrocardiograms

1969 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 120-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Amlinger
Keyword(s):  
Computer Analysis ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Regional Medical ◽  
Medical Program

Routine transmission of electrocardiograms and their computer interpretation via long-distance telephone lines has been proven feasible in the Automated Electrocardiogram Project of the Missouri Regional Medical Program. Though this Pilot Project — the first on a state-wide basis — is still viewed as an applied research effort rather than a service, such biotelemetry is rapidly gaining acceptance as a medium to bring modern medicine, through modern technology, to urban and remote rural areas as well, where it is most needed.The computer executes all the wave measuraments and calculations with incredible speed. It takes over a most boring, repetitive part of the physician’s work. However, it can only follow the instructions of the diagnostic program, compiled by expert cardiologists. Thus, it is an ever-ready, never-tiring servant for the physician and his patients.

Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District – Using Asset Management for Better Infrastructure Decision Making

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (9) ◽  
pp. 3725-3747
Author(s):  
Johnson Ho ◽  
Mark Tomko ◽  
Gage Muckleroy ◽  
Roop Lutchman ◽  
Mert Muftugil
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Flood Control

Investment Management and the Investment Chain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane-Laure Arjaliès ◽  
Philip Grant ◽  
Iain Hardie ◽  
Donald MacKenzie ◽  
Ekaterina Svetlova
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Investment Management ◽  
Money Flows ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Asset Managers

Chapter 1 introduces the idea of the chain as related to investment management. It highlights the increasing importance and influence of the asset management industry and argues that, despite this fact, the behaviour and decision-making of asset managers has been little studied. The chapter suggests that investment decisions today cannot be understood by focusing on isolated investors. Rather, most of their money flows through a chain: a sequence of intermediaries that ‘sit between’ savers and companies/governments. The chapter introduces the central argument of the book that investment management is shaped profoundly by the opportunities and constraints that this chain creates.

scholarly journals Breaking Up and a New Beginning When One’s Partner Goes into a Nursing Home: An Interview Study

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 672
Author(s):  
Gerd Ahlström ◽  
Nina Stååhl Markeling ◽  
Ulrika Liljenberg ◽  
Helena Rosén
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Home Care ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Nursing Home Care ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Home Placement

In aging societies worldwide, spouses take on great responsibility for care when their partner continues to live at home. Nursing home placement occurs when the partner becomes too frail due to multimorbidity, and this will cause a change in the spouse’s life. This study aimed to explore the spouse’s experience of their partner’s move to a nursing home. Two interviews were conducted at 9-month intervals within the project entitled “Implementation of Knowledge-Based Palliative Care in Nursing Homes”. Thirteen spouses from both urban and rural areas were included, with an age-range of 60–86 years (median 72). Qualitative content analysis was performed. The main findings were captured in two themes: Breaking up of close coexistence and Towards a new form of daily life. The first encompassed processing loneliness, separation and grief, exhaustion, increased burden, and a sense of guilt. The second encompassed a sense of freedom, relief, acceptance, support and comfort. Professionals in both home care and nursing home care need to develop and provide a support programme conveying knowledge of the transition process to prevent poor quality of life and depression among the spouses. Such a programme should be adaptable to individual needs and should ideally be drawn up in consultation with both partners.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Supply Chains Evidence-Based Multidimensional Analyses as Tools for Strategic Decision-Making—The Case of the Pineapple Supply Chain in Benin

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2060
Author(s):  
Doriane Desclee ◽  
David Sohinto ◽  
Freddy Padonou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Agricultural Supply

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 is a shared objective of all institutions and people. The challenges differ according to the characteristics of every context. In developing countries, strongly dependent on the agricultural sector, agricultural supply chains are recognized as crucial for economic growth and enablers for livelihood improvement. Moreover, sustainable development issues are correlated and can meet in agricultural supply chains. For several decades, parallel to decision-makers, the research community has elaborated sustainability assessment tools. Such tools evolved to fit with actuality, but it is challenging to find decision-making support tools for sustainable development adequate in agricultural supply chains and developing countries contexts. There is a necessity to define evidence-based tools and exhaustive analytical frameworks according to sustainability multidimensionality and strategical tradeoffs necessity. The VCA4D method aims to go beyond the limits of previous methods. It proposes a combination of multidisciplinary analytical tools applied empirically to analyze agricultural supply chains in their context. It provides evidence-based analytical results allowing to identify enablers for strategic sustainable and inclusive interventions. However, to even better meet contextual exhaustiveness’s expectations and indicators’ robustness to lead to relevant interventions, we should insist on a stricter framing of contextual data collection processes.

scholarly journals A Model-Driven-to-Sample-Driven Method for Rural Road Extraction

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1417
Author(s):  
Jiguang Dai ◽  
Rongchen Ma ◽  
Litao Gong ◽  
Zimo Shen ◽  
Jialin Wu
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Template Matching ◽  
Color Space ◽  
Recall Rate ◽  
Road Extraction ◽  
Rural Roads ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
The Road ◽  
Center Point ◽  
Manual Input

Road extraction in rural areas is one of the most fundamental tasks in the practical application of remote sensing. In recent years, sample-driven methods have achieved state-of-the-art performance in road extraction tasks. However, sample-driven methods are prohibitively expensive and laborious, especially when dealing with rural roads with irregular curvature changes, narrow widths, and diverse materials. The template matching method can overcome these difficulties to some extent and achieve impressive road extraction results. This method also has the advantage of the vectorization of road extraction results, but the automation is limited. Straight line sequences can be substituted for curves, and the use of the color space can increase the recognition of roads and nonroads. A model-driven-to-sample-driven road extraction method for rural areas with a much higher degree of automation than existing template matching methods is proposed in this study. Without prior samples, on the basis of the geometric characteristics of narrow and long roads and using the advantages of straight lines instead of curved lines, the road center point extraction model is established through length constraints and gray mean contrast constraints of line sequences, and the extraction of some rural roads is completed through topological connection analysis. In addition, we take the extracted road center point and manual input data as local samples, use the improved line segment histogram to determine the local road direction, and use the panchromatic and hue, saturation, value (HSV) space interactive matching model as the matching measure to complete the road tracking extraction. Experimental results show that, for different types of data and scenarios on the premise, the accuracy and recall rate of the evaluation indicators reach more than 98%, and, compared with other methods, the automation of this algorithm has increased by more than 40%.

Relating Household Consumption Expenditures to Road Traffic Fatalities: A Rural–Urban Study

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110332
Author(s):  
Ruchika Agarwala ◽  
Vinod Vasudevan
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Household Consumption ◽  
Household Expenditure ◽  
Traffic Fatality ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
The Relationship

Research shows that traffic fatality risk is generally higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In developing countries, vehicle ownership and investments in public transportation typically increase with economic growth. These two factors together increase the vehicle population, which in turn affects traffic safety. This paper presents a study focused on the relationship of various factors—including household consumption expenditure data—with traffic fatality in rural and urban areas and thereby aims to fill some of the gaps in the literature. One such gap is the impacts of personal and non-personal modes of travel on traffic safety in rural versus urban areas in developing countries which remains unexplored. An exhaustive panel data modeling approach is adopted. One important finding of this study is that evidence exists of a contrasting relationship between household expenditure and traffic fatality in rural and urban areas. The relationship between household expenditure and traffic fatality is observed to be positive in rural areas and a negative in urban areas. Increases in most expenditure variables, such as fuel, non-personal modes of travel, and two-wheeler expenditures, are found to be associated with an increase in traffic fatality in rural areas.

scholarly journals The Extent of Heat on Health and Sustainable Farming in Ghana –Bawku East

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frimpong Kwasi ◽  
Jacque Oosthuizen ◽  
Eddie Van Etten
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Wet Bulb Globe Temperature ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Outdoor Work ◽  
Globe Temperature

<p>Little is known about the health effects of heat in outdoor work and appropriate work and rest schedules for farmers working in developing countries. As temperatures continue to increase in tropical regions, such as Northern Ghana, it is necessary to evaluate how farmers experience and respond to high heat exposures. In this study, WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) estimates and the ISO work / rest standards were applied to a cohort of farmers in the rural areas of Bawku East, Northern Ghana, to assess how farmers respond to high heat and how much they rest to protect their health, as well as the level of heat on their productivity. WBGT data was recorded over a period of 6 months among vegetable, cereals, and legume farmers. The ISO proposed and actual rest regimes observed by farmers in the same time period were evaluated. In the dry season the dry bulb temperature rose as high as 45 ºC, while during the humid months of March and April WBGT rose to levels as high as 34 ºC. Farmers worked for nine hours a day during these hot periods with insufficient rest, which has adverse consequences on their health and productivity.</p>

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