Elimination of Schistosoma japonicum Transmission in China: A Case of Schistosomiasis Control in the Severe Epidemic Area of Anhui Province

Over the several decades, China has been incessantly optimizing control strategies in response to the varying epidemic situations of schistosomiasis. We evaluated continuously the changing prevalence under different control strategies of two villages, Sanlian and Guifan, in China through five phases lasting 37 years. We tested residents, calculated prevalence and discussed change causes. We found the prevalence in Sanlian did not differ significant from that of Guifan (p = 0.18) in 1981, but decreased to 2.66%, much lower than Guifan’s 11.25%, in 1984 (p = 0). Besides, prevalence in Guifan increased to 21.25% in 1987, while in Sanlian it rose to 20.78% until 1989. Those data confirmed that praziquantel combined with snail control could better reduce the prevalence. From 1992 to 1994, the prevalence in the two villages displayed downtrends, which showed the World Bank Loan Project worked. From 1995 to 2004, repeated oscillations with no obvious change trend was seen. Since 2005, the prevalence in both villages has shown a significant downtrend (p < 0.05), which suggests the integrated strategy is effective. We considered the control strategies were implemented suitably in the study area under changing social circumstances. Adjusting the strategy in consideration of social transformations is necessary and vital. The experience may be useful for policy making of other epidemic areas with an analogous situation.

SYSTEM IRIGATION OF RASPBERRY ON THE TERRITORY OF BRATUNAC MUNICIPALITY

In the Republic of Srpska, the construction of an irrigation system in agriculture is ongoing, in order to increase the yield. One of the projects that is being implemented is the construction of a system for irrigation of raspberries in the territory of the municipality of Bratunac. In the area of 20 local communities, 27 irrigation systems are being built. The total area for irrigation is about 490 hectares. Plots are privately owned, with an average area of 0.2 hectares. The systems consist of water intakes (wells along the Drina river or direct catch from smaller streams), pressure pipelines, reservoirs, distribution pipelines, hydrants for taking water for individual land plots. The project is funded by the World Bank loan. It is expected to increase yields from irrigated areas by at least 30%.

Test cheating and standardised assessment in Croatia: Changing procedures, changing minds?

This paper attempts to explain why test cheating in Croatia seemingly prevails despite the introduction of a standardised examination, the state matura. It offers a contrast to sweeping cultural explanations of the stereotypical Eastern-European cheater and attempts to examine the issue more thoroughly. The Croatian state matura is a secondary school exit examination which was adopted as part of the surge of neoliberal policies around the world and was financed through a World Bank loan. The position taken here is that borrowed neoliberal policies, like standardised assessment, lead to unpredictable and unexpected responses in post-socialist settings (Silova, 2010 ; Steiner-Khamsi and Stolpe, 2006 ), offering new perspectives and explanations on educational practices more generally. The concepts of comparative and transcendental justice (Sen, 1999 , 2009 ) are used to illustrate how cheating practices in Croatian educational settings seemingly prevailed, despite the introduction of the state matura. The paper maps the trend of Croatian teachers’ handling of cheating and suggests that standardised assessment cultivates a vision of educational fairness that is both enabled and constrained by a belief in a perfectly just procedure.

The Research on Pavement Maintenance Management of Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Expressway

The Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu expressway is the first highway which is built by using World Bank loan in china. With the influence of service life increasing and traffic growing, the diseases appear such as rut, crack and poor flatness, so the use performance of the highway obviously degrades. Pavement overhaul effectively reduces the appearing of pavement diseases and prolongs the service life of the road. This paper conducts a detailed research on the engineering management and construction quality control of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu expressway overhaul which has strong reference significance on highway overhaul.