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Malaria is largely neglected in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR), although it has the highest number of people susceptible to the disease. Malaria in the SEAR exhibits special epidemiological characteristics such as "forest malaria" and malaria due to migration across international borders. The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been a focal-point for the emergence of drug resistant malaria. With the recent emergence of artemisinin resistance, coupled with the limited availability of insecticides, malaria control efforts in the SEAR face a steep challenge. Indirect man-made factors such as climate change, as well as direct man-made factors such as the circulation of counterfeit drugs have added to the problem. Increased monitoring, surveillance, pharmacovigilance as well as cross-border collaboration are required to address these problems. Regional networking and data-sharing will keep all stakeholders updated about the status of various malaria control programmes in the SEAR. Cutting-edge technologies such as GIS/GPS (geographical information system/global positioning system) systems and mobile phones can provide information in "real-time". A holistic and sustained approach to malaria control by integrated vector management (IVM) is suggested, in which all the stakeholder countries work collaboratively as a consortium. This approach will address the malaria problem in a collective manner so that malaria control can be sustained over time.

We investigate the question whether the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) could be used to replace or complement those of multifunctionality and sustainability in the agri-food sector. It shows that the double role of citizens as tax payers and customers requests and allows us to directly link the problems of governance and stakeholder society in an intertemporal framework of total value maximisation and sustainable development. Thus, the concept of CSR provides a link between the views on agriculture’s multifunctionality and sustainability. Moreover, the fact that some actors in a vertical market, such as the agri-food chain, can exercise market power and absorb tax money and resource rents enforces the need of a broader perspective which involves concern about addresses the social responsibilities and performance of all actors along this value chain.

Cities worldwide are experiencing the effects of extreme climate events. Urban floods have emerged as a direct consequence of climate change in cities. Understanding the vulnerability to flooding would help policy actions to reduce the impacts due to flooding. This paper targets Ahmedabad, one of the major cities in India witnessing rapid urbanization and frequently struggling with floods. The study utilizes flood vulnerability indicators, quantifying and establishing a flood vulnerability index for Ahmedabad. The index links social, environmental, infrastructure, economic, and building-level indicators to define flood vulnerability. The relative importance of the indicators is arrived at by using experts' inputs and merged with the indicator to spatially analyze the patterns of vulnerability in the city comprising the four dimensions. The study finding suggests the city's eastern side is most vulnerable to floods. Twenty-four percent of the Ahmedabad population lives in highly vulnerable areas and seventy-four percent in moderately vulnerable areas, while a mere two percent of Ahmedabad's population resides in low-vulnerable areas. Lambha ward is the most vulnerable for the social dimension, while Dani Limda ward is the most vulnerable for the economic dimension. Kadi ward performs poorly in the environmental and infrastructure dimension. Sarkhej emerges as the most vulnerable ward in building conditions. Combining the dimensions, Shahpur is the most vulnerable ward when considering overall flood vulnerability.

Bamboo – identified as a Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) – offering optimal mechanical properties for construction purposes, and at the same time little studied among contemporary building materials, is paradoxically most used in precarious housing. The use of natural resources within the context of sustainable development is nowadays considered a subject of vital importance, especially in the construction industry, considered as being the largest consumer of world energy. This work concerns itself with two fundamental contemporary issues: the use of natural resources as a contribution to sustainable development and precarious housing. The topic of housing among the different problems relating to the construction industry is one of the most critical in developing countries since poverty entails precariousness in various aspects of the habitat and particularly in housing. The aim of this thesis is to validate a construction element designed using bamboo as its main constituent. Therefore in the first part, before presenting the composite bamboo structure, the CBS panel (an element designed within the framework of this thesis), the theme of precarious housing in relation to bamboo is examined. A final part gives insight into the appropriation and application of the proposed CBS panel. The first part, devoted to the link between bamboo and precarious housing, analyses the problems concerning social housing in developing countries. To identify how bamboo's use for construction is related to the social habitat, precarious housing is evaluated on the basis of the world view and aspirations of inhabitants. This will help determine the challenges involved in the construction proposals put forward to reduce the complex problems of social housing in the South. In this search, the reality of intermediate cities is examined to obtain a better understanding of the urbanisation phenomenon of metropolises versus the deterioration of the rural habitat within the context of globalisation (Chapters 1 and 2). The second part is devoted to presenting the composite bamboo structure (CBS panel) carrying out simple four-point load bending tests resulting in values that guarantee the element's load-bearing capacity, establishing the existence of a composite behaviour between bamboo and concrete. An experimental study, allowing the interaction between bamboo and concrete to be identified, was carried out. The use of bamboo in construction is validated via mechanical tests, studying the mechanical properties of bamboo and identifying high tensile strength, and confirming the weakness of bamboo, a longitudinal separation parallel to the grain. The investigation contributes to improvement by means of fibre reinforcement: natural, such as jute, and artificial, such as glass fibre, with compression tests made parallel and perpendicular to the fibre (Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6). The third part concerns the study of appropriation and application criteria, applied to the composite bamboo structure (CBS panel). This part contains theoretical elements and a descriptive study with qualitative methodology that explores appropriation by various populations of Latin America, all involved with a construction project. This revision confirms the hypothesis that social appropriation is a complex issue that includes cultural, social and psychological elements, which are part of the emerging phenomenon of human settlements in precarious areas. The production of social housing is based on the study of the relationship between bamboo, its morphology, its applicability as construction system and the spaces that can be generated. Consequently the different possible forms of housing are presented, developing details of connections between the housing elements, and their chain of production. Quality control is identified as being the most important stage to guarantee the final product. Failure to carry out this control would be to jeopardise the success of not only the CBS panel but also the use of bamboo as resource. We also demonstrate that appropriation of a technology for a target group must be considered not only in relation to this group, but also introduce its use to a superior target group, since the reference factor is important (Chapter 7).

Economics Working Paper Series, 21/353

The government of India has introduced many schemes for the development and upliftment of the rural people in India. The schemes were introduced to develop rural, underprivileged youth into a self-sufficient, employable workforce and to convert the rural population into a self-sustained generation with housing and income generation. Since it was introduced through banks and financial organizations, people in the banks and people who have knowledge about banks and loans alone were able to get the benefits of the schemes. To implement the schemes, the government of India has started programs through schools and colleges. The following are the objectives of the study. (i) to present the various central Government Schemes of Rural India, (ii) to present the socio-economic profile of the sample respondents, (iii) to study the level of awareness about the central government schemes and (iv) to give suggestions to create more awareness about the central government scheme for rural India. Though many schemes are available and many are developed in many parts of the country, people in the South are not aware of these schemes available for them. So, an attempt has been made to know the awareness of the Central Government Schemes available, the researchers had taken 238 random sample respondents in the city of Coimbatore. The results showed that the people had a medium level of awareness of the Central Government Schemes and suggestions were given accordingly.

{"references": ["1 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4),Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.", "2 World Health Report,2007 Accessed at:28.12.2015 http://www.who.int/whr/2007/whr07_en.pdf", "3 The World Malaria Report, 2011Accessed at : http://www.who.int/malaria/world_malaria_report _2011/en", "4 Bhattacharya S., Sharma C, .Dhiman R.C and Mitra A.P., Climate Change and India, Current Science, February 2006 Vol. 90, No. 3, 10 ,pg 369 \u2013 375", "5 WHO(2014). World Malaria Report 2014. WHO, Geneva. 2014. Accessed at http://apps.who. int/iris/bitstream/10665/144852/2/9789241564830 _eng.pdf", "6 NVBDCP(2015).Malaria situation. National Vector Borne Disease control Programme. Accessed athttp://nvbdcp.gov.in/Doc/mal_situation_Jan2015. pdf", "7 Dash A.P, Valecha N.,.Anvikar A.R and Kumar A. Malaria in India: Challenges and opportunities; J. Biosci., 2008 33 583\u2013592", "8 J.Sathaye, J. et al., \"Climate change, sustainable development and India: global and national concerns\", Current Science , February, 2006, Vol 90, No 3, 10 pages 314-325.", "9 Lendrum D. C. and .Corval\u00e1n C, Climate Change and Developing-Country Cities: Implications For Environmental Health and Equity, J Urban Health. 2007 May; 84(Suppl 1): 109\u2013117.", "10 Githeko. A.K., Malaria and climate change, Commonwealth Health Ministers' Update 2009,pg 40- 43", "11 Singh P.K, Dhiman RC.. Climate change and human health: Indian context, J Vector Borne Dis. 2012 Jun;49(2):55-60.", "12 Nigam R, Climate Change and its Impact on Incidence of Malaria: A study of Urban Settlements of Bhopal, th India, Proceedings of 8 International conference on Urban Health,Nairobi,Nov.2009", "13 Osuntoki A. A. ,A review of molecular biology techniques. Proceedings Of the workshop on DNA fingerprinting and blotting techniques,organized by Danifol Biotechnology Consult, 2005", "14 Soetan K. O. and Abatan M. O., Biotechnology a key tool to breakthrough in medical and veterinary research, Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Review , August 2008 ,Vol. 3(4), pp. 088-094.", "15 Gamble H.R, Zarlenga DS, Biotechnology in the development of vaccines for animal parasites. Vet. Parasitol. , 1986, 20: 237-250.", "16 Tangpukdee N, Duangdee, C. P. Wilairatana & S. Krudsood Malaria Diagnosis: ABrief Review, Korean J Parasitol, 2009", "17 Nanotechnology Device Aims to Prevent Malaria D e a t h s T h r o u g h R a p i d D i a g n o s i s , http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/12 0926092917.htm", "18 Pesticide Management Education Program at Cornell University website: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu", "19 Borovsky D Trypsin-modulating oostatic factor: a potential new larvicide for mosquito control", "20 Ghosh AK., Ribolla PE., M.Jacobs-Lorena :Targeting Plasmodium ligands on mosquito salivary glands and midgut with a phage display peptide library. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001", "21 WHO's Tables of Malaria Vaccine Projects Globally: \"The Rainbow Tables\"", "22 Guidelines on prevention of the reintroduction of malaria,W.H.O.,EMRO Technical Publications Series 34,200"]} Climate change is progressing globally and is likely to affect the human health in various ways. Transmission of vector borne diseases like malaria, which is endemic in most parts of India, is likely to be affected by climate variability. Temperature affects the developmental period related to different stages of mosquitoes' life cycle like blood feeding rates, gonotrophic cycle and longevity. Increase in temperature increases the probability of transmission by reducing the time of gonotrophic cycle, increasing the rate of blood meal digestion and greater frequency of feeding the host. Various reports on the impact of climate change on malaria in India on climate change and its impact on incidence of malaria, regarding impact of climate change on malaria in India with emphasis on selected sites, have shown marked impact and likelihood of increased incidence of malaria and development of new endemic regions. Its hence important to develop newer strategies and Biotechnology, which can play a vital role in combating malaria by intervening at diagnostic, prophylactic, therapeutic and preventive levels by interfering in malarial transmission by vector mosquitoes. Applications to malaria control can be in the form of (a) newer drug development, (b) vector incapacitation-transgenic mosquitoes, (c) vaccine developmentidentification and manufacture, (d) differential diagnosis- speciation and drug sensitivity of malaria parasites. Biotechnology and improved surveillance of malarial infection is the key in mitigating the effect of climate change on incidence of malaria.

Economics Working Paper Series, 20/337

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Municipal, metropolitan, regional and national governments, companies, international organizations, financiers, technology developers and civil society across the globe are faced with increasingly complex problems to transform the potential challenge of rapid urbanization into an opportunity to foster development and prosperity in societies. Cities are under immense pressure to address environmental sustainability issues. In addition, utilizing the potential of technologies and innovations, often under the label of Smart City initiatives, to enhance the performance in terms of efficiency, resilience and sustainability has become an important priority on many cities' agendas. In this complex urban context, infrastructures, which are best conceptualized as complex socio-technical systems, play a crucial role in attaining the desired performance for cities. Governance of urban infrastructures plays a pivotal role in enabling cities to deliver quality services to citizens. Addressing complex problems associated with governance of large urban infrastructures calls for a genuine holistic-multidisciplinary approach. However, literature shows that urban practitioners (both in the public and private sector) seldom approach complex urban problems from such a holistic and multidisciplinary perspective, and technical and discipline-specific approaches continue to prevail. The current literature also highlights the important role that professional training can play in helping urban practitioners to adopt such a perspective. Yet, only a limited number of studies have attempted to shed light on the challenges associated with training urban practitioners to adopt a holistic perspective; even fewer studies go on to propose effective strategies for dealing with those challenges in practice. This thesis precisely sheds light on this understudied domain of research. Action Research is used as the research methodology in this thesis. A full-scale Executive Master program on innovative governance of large urban systems (IGLUS) was developed and served as the empirical context of the research. The thesis reports the processes undertaken for the design, implementation, and continuous evaluation of the IGLUS Executive Master. Building upon this solid empirical basis, it also provides a systematic and structured illustration of some of the most important challenges associated with training urban practitioners to adopt a more holistic-multidisciplinary perspective to address complex urban problems. Strategies for effectively dealing with these challenges, and ultimately delivering a transformative learning experience, are also proposed. The key findings of this thesis are that critical reflection is instrumental to developing meaningful learning experiences for adult learners. Developing and using conceptual frameworks can serve as an invaluable pedagogical exercise; supporting the meaning-making processes for both the educators and learners. Helping adults to effectively engage in critical reflection in and on their actions is absolutely essential, but is an inherently complex and delicate task. Thus, delivering a learning experience on the basis of promoting critical reflection requires a genuinely innovative, reflective and comprehensive approach towards the design and delivery of the training programs; in these settings knowledgeable, dedicated and creative program managers and educators play a pivotal role.