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Haiti, a Caribbean country, is highly vulnerable to hydroclimatic hazards due to heavy rainfall, which is partly linked to tropical cyclones. Additionally, its steep slopes generate flash floods, particularly in small catchments. Moreover, the hydrology of this region remains poorly understood and understudied. Unfortunately, there is no accessible database for the scientific community to use in this country. To fill this gap, hydroclimatic data were collected to create the first historical database in Haiti. This database, called Simbi (guardian of rivers, freshwater, and rain in Haitian mythology), includes 156 monthly rainfall series over the period 1905–2005, 59 daily rainfall series over the period 1920–1940, 70 daily streamflow series, and 23 monthly temperature series, not necessarily continuous, over the period 1920–1940. It also provides simulated streamflow series over the period 1920–1940 using the GR2M and GR4J rainfall–runoff models for 24 catchments and 49 attributes covering a wide range of topographic, climatic, geological, land use, hydrogeological, and hydrological signature indices. Simbi is the first open-access hydro-meteorological dataset for Haiti and will contribute to a better knowledge of hydrological risk in Haiti. Several sources of uncertainty associated with Simbi are acknowledged, including data quality (historical data), digitisation of paper archives, identification of relevant rain gauges, and rainfall–runoff models. It is important to consider these uncertainties when using Simbi. The database will be regularly updated to include additional historical data that will be digitised in the future. It will thus contribute toward better knowledge of the hydrology of Haitian catchments and will enable the implementation of various hydrological calculations useful for designing structures or flow forecasting. Simbi is an open-access database and is available for download at 10.23708/02POK6 (Bathelemy et al., 2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has had serious consequences for world food security; lockdowns and social distancing have led to changes in global food value chains, primarily affecting the poorest of the planet. The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between food insecurity and the structural risk factors for adverse impacts of COVID-19. To that end, 12 contingency tables are constructed to identify the association between the pillars of the food insecurity index and the INFORM COVID-19 Risk Index. We use the Gamma coefficient as a measure of association. In addition, this paper proposes a synthetic index produced by applying the TOPSIS method, using the pillars of the two aforementioned indices (criteria) to establish a ranking of 112 countries (alternatives) ordered from highest to lowest risk faced in the key year of the pandemic, 2020. The results show that the two problems are connected, indicating to international organizations that countries with worse food insecurity will suffer more serious consequences from extreme situations such as the one experienced during the pandemic. The ranking established directs international organizations' attention to countries such as Haiti, Zambia and Burundi, highlighting their greater need for an injection of financial aid than other emerging economies. Conversely, Switzerland is the country with the lowest combined risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Plura: Journal for the Study of Religion / Revista de Estudos de Religião is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Historia das Religioes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Alternative Politics / Alternatif Politika is the property of Alternatif Politika and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study has a dual objective: (i) to assess, using a neoclassical growth model proposed by the IMF, the economic and financial impact of COVID-19 in Haiti; and (ii) determine, using a threshold-effect regression model, such as Threshold Auto Regressive (TAR) inspired by the work of Hansen (1999), the optimal threshold of public expenditure, likely to generate sustainable economic growth in this area. country, and which at the same time makes it possible to mitigate the perverse effects of the economic. Also, in order to promote sustainable economic growth in this country and fight against the effects of COVID-19, The main purpose of this paper is twofold (i) to estimate by using a neoclassical model of growth proposed by IMF, the economic and financial impact of COVID-19 in Haiti; (ii) to analyze threshold effects of government size on economic growth in this country, by using Hansen's Threshold Auto Regressive (TAR), 1999. It uses the time series data over the period 1980-2019. In the first model, the paper finds that on account of the pandemic, the Haiti's GDP could be reduced of 14.1% in 2020. In the second model, our results provide strong evidence for the existence of a non-linear relationship between government expenditure and economic growth. Based on these results, the paper finds that the optimal level of government expenditure that maximizes economic growth for Haiti is 14.1% of GDP against a staff level of 11.1%. They show that the state spends well below its potential growth. On the other hand, if this threshold is exceeded, the increase of the percentage ratio of state budget expenditure / GDP will have a negative impact on the speed of GDP growth. Thus, our recommendations are in favor of increasing government investment to education, health, infrastructure, environmental sectors… that are neglected up to this day in Haiti. However, these expenditures have to be limited to a level that no excess the optimal size environmental sectors. that are neglected up to this day in Haiti. However, these expenditures have to be limited to a level that no excess the optimal size environmental sectors. that are neglected up to this day in Haiti. However, these expenditures have to be limited to a level that no excess the optimal size [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For emergency rescue and damage assessment after an earthquake, quick detection of seismic landslides in the affected areas is crucial. The purpose of this study is to quickly determine the extent and size of post-earthquake seismic landslides using a small amount of post-earthquake seismic landslide imagery data. This information will serve as a foundation for emergency rescue efforts, disaster estimation, and other actions. In this study, Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China's 2008 post-quake Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) remote sensing images are used as the data source. ResNet-50, ResNet-101, and Swin Transformer are used as the backbone networks of Mask R-CNN to train and identify seismic landslides in post-quake UAV images. The training samples are then augmented by data augmentation methods, and transfer learning methods are used to reduce the training time required and enhance the generalization of the model. Finally, transfer learning was used to apply the model to seismic landslide imagery from Haiti after the earthquake that was not calibrated. With Precision and F1 scores of 0.9328 and 0.9025, respectively, the results demonstrate that Swin Transformer performs better as a backbone network than the original Mask R-CNN, YOLOv5, and Faster R-CNN. In Haiti's post-earthquake images, the improved model performs significantly better than the original model in terms of accuracy and recognition. The model for identifying post-earthquake seismic landslides developed in this paper has good generalizability and transferability as well as good application potential in emergency responses to earthquake disasters, which can offer strong support for post-earthquake emergency rescue and disaster assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation is crucial for addressing current and future climate change challenges in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and climate finance instruments, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) can play a key role in increasing their adaptive capacity and supporting the integration of adaptation into policy and programmes. Few studies have analysed the linkages between climate finance, adaptation mainstreaming, and institutional adaptive capacity; however, assessments of the impacts of climate finance on adaptation and adaptive capacity, particularly at the institutional level, are still limited. This research assesses how climate finance may promote institutional change through the mainstreaming of adaptation policies at the national level, and may contribute to more institutional adaptive capacity. Through reviewing the documentation of approved Green Climate Fund Readiness Preparatory Support Grants, and through semi-structured interviews focusing on three Caribbean SIDS (Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Haiti), this paper shows that the grants had a positive impact on several processes, though sometimes limited by the strength and role of the institutions in place. These results demonstrate that access to climate finance can create a window of opportunity for countries to accelerate institutional change and adaptation integration. However, further studies are needed to examine the complementary influence of the different climate finance flows (multilateral or bilateral), and their interplay with national institutional mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an archaeological reconstruction of indigenous landscape transformations in the first colonized region of the Caribbean. The arrival of Columbus in 1492 in the northern region of the island of Haytí (the current Dominican Republic and Haiti) signified a profound change in the lives of the island's communities, transforming their everyday actions and their perceptions of landscape. To address this complex topic, this research tackled a key problem in landscape archaeology: while the "landscape" concept has been extensively debated, there is a growing tendency to use the concept without clear definitions and to obscure important methodological aspects of how scholars bridge the divide between their conceptual definitions and the archaeological record. This paper approaches this problem by applying the concepts of 'sites as tendencies' and 'contested taskscapes'. This theoretical and methodological framework allows for the reconstruction of the indigenous landscape and, more importantly, highlights how the colonization process impacted the everyday tasks and perceptions of Hayti's indigenous people through the profound transformation of their landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haiti’s long and difficult security sector reform (SSR) process has entered a new phase. The reinstatement of the Haitian armed forces, nearly 20 years after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded them, adds a new set of actors and more complexity to a process already struggling to deliver results amidst a seemingly endless series of political crises. The armed forces must be an impartial and apolitical institution if they are to contribute to stability in Haiti – an uncertain proposition given their past inability to stay out of the political arena. Building on a summary of the latest developments in the reinstatement process, this paper discusses its implications for Haiti’s prolonged international engagement. In particular, the paper focuses on the process to develop a new White Paper on Defence and National Security in Haiti. This process has the potential to contribute to two of the most significant shortcomings of SSR in Haiti, a limited focus on security sector governance and a lack of local ownership. The reinstatement process has been an interesting test case of the international donor community’s commitment to the concept of local ownership, long held to be a moral and practical pillar of international engagement. Though reinstatement has been driven by Haitian authorities, the process has struggled to make progress without donor support, raising questions about the appropriate role of international actors in strategic decision-making at the national level. Regardless of their initial reaction to reinstatement, Haiti’s international donors risk missing an opportunity to influence the development of an important pillar of Haiti’s post- MINUSTAH security sector by choosing to remain on the sidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interplay between social and physical aspects of food retail in disaster and post-disaster contexts and discusses how it can inform better market support interventions and food retail modernization agendas. To this end, this paper draws on a case study analysis of three distinct marketplaces in metropolitan Port-au-Prince to explore aspects of food provision and access. The findings demonstrate the pertinence of beneficial reciprocal relationships among traders and between traders and customers, as well as the physical preconditions for the existence and maintenance of these relationships over time. The study also reviews the impacts of destroyed and changing physical infrastructure in disaster and post-disaster contexts on these social relationships. It concludes by calling for an acknowledgement of the interrelated attributes of solidarity, proximity and stability of existing marketplaces in urban planning and humanitarian practices in the efforts to improve urban food security and disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 14 August 2021, an earthquake of moment magnitude Mw = 7.2 hit Haiti Island. Unfortunately, it caused several victims and economic damage to the island. While predicting earthquakes is still challenging and has not yet been achieved, studying the preparation phase of such catastrophic events may improve our knowledge and pose the basis for future predictions of earthquakes. In this paper, the six months that preceded the Haiti earthquake are analysed, investigating the lithosphere (by seismic catalogue), atmosphere (by climatological archive) and ionosphere by China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01) and Swarm satellites, as well as Total Electron Content (TEC) data. Several anomalies have been extracted from the analysed parameters using different techniques. A comparison, especially between the different layers, could increase or decrease the probability that a specific group of anomalies may be (or not) related to the preparation phase of the Haiti 2021 earthquake. In particular, two possible coupling processes have been revealed as part of the earthquake preparation phase. The first one was only between the lithosphere and the atmosphere about 130 days before the mainshock. The second one was about two months before the seismic event. It is exciting to underline that all the geo-layers show anomalies at that time: seismic accumulation of stress showed an increase of its slope, several atmospheric quantities underline abnormal atmospheric conditions, and CSES-01 Ne depicted two consecutive days of ionospheric electron density. This suggested a possible coupling of lithosphere–atmosphere and ionosphere as a sign of the increased stress, i.e., the impending earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and researchers have used routine health data to estimate potential declines in the delivery and uptake of essential health services. This research relies on the data being high quality and, crucially, on the data quality not changing because of the pandemic. In this paper, we investigated those assumptions and assessed data quality before and during COVID-19. Methods: We obtained routine health data from the DHIS2 platforms in Ethiopia, Haiti, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Nepal, and South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal province) for a range of 40 indicators on essential health services and institutional deaths. We extracted data over 24 months (January 2019–December 2020) including pre-pandemic data and the first 9 months of the pandemic. We assessed four dimensions of data quality: reporting completeness, presence of outliers, internal consistency, and external consistency. Results: We found high reporting completeness across countries and services and few declines in reporting at the onset of the pandemic. Positive outliers represented fewer than 1% of facility-month observations across services. Assessment of internal consistency across vaccine indicators found similar reporting of vaccines in all countries. Comparing cesarean section rates in the HMIS to those from population-representative surveys, we found high external consistency in all countries analyzed. Conclusions: While efforts remain to improve the quality of these data, our results show that several indicators in the HMIS can be reliably used to monitor service provision over time in these five countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of World Tensions / Tensões Mundiais is the property of Observatorio das Nacionalidades and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this study we argue that recognising humanitarian logistics (HL) as a complex system is a key step in developing supply chain design and management strategies that meet the needs of stakeholders. This study draws on complex adaptive systems theory to examine the characteristics and implications of complexity for HL. Through case-study research of humanitarian responses in Haiti and Pakistan, characteristics of complexity across organisational boundaries are identified. We find that the complexity of the context impacts the outcome of the humanitarian response and conclude that HL must not only react to its environment, it must also create its environment. As HL must work within significantly differing environments to create solutions, the standardised approaches used to manage supply chains are less desirable. While this paper focuses on HL, wider applicability to other complex logistics operations is also discussed, informing the design and management of contextually specific supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Open defecation (OD) remains an important public health challenge in Haiti. The practice poses a significantly high risk of disease transmission. Considering these negative health consequences, this paper aims to identify socio-economic and demographic factors that influence OD practice among households in Haiti.Methods: The study used secondary data from 13,405 households from the Haiti Demographic and Health Survey 2016-2017. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis were used to find the preliminary results. Further, multivariate analysis was performed to confirm the findings.Results: Around one quarter (25.3%) of Haitian households still defecate in the open, almost 10% in urban areas, and nearly 36% in rural areas. Multivariate analysis revealed that the age and sex of the household head, household size, number of children aged 1-14 years old in the household, education level, wealth index, access to mass media, place of residence, and region were significant predictors of OD practice among households in Haiti.Conclusion: To accelerate the elimination of OD by 2030 and therefore achieve sustainable open defecation-free status, the government of Haiti and its partners should consider wealth disparities among regions and mobilize mass media and community-based networks to raise awareness and promote education about sane sanitation practices. Furthermore, because the possibilities to build toilets differ between rural and urban areas, specific interventions must be spearheaded for each of these regions. The public program can subsidize individual toilets in rural areas with room to collect dry excreta for the preparation of fertilizers, while in urban areas collective toilets can be built in slums. Interventions should also prioritize households headed by women and young people, two underpriviledged socioeconomic groups in Haiti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike other European domesticates introduced in the Americas after the European invasion, equids (Equidae) were previously in the Western Hemisphere but were extinct by the late Holocene era. The return of equids to the Americas through the introduction of the domestic horse (Equus caballus) is documented in the historical literature but is not explored fully either archaeologically or genetically. Historical documents suggest that the first domestic horses were brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caribbean in the late 15th century CE, but archaeological remains of these early introductions are rare. This paper presents the mitochondrial genome of a late 16th century horse from the Spanish colonial site of Puerto Real (northern Haiti). It represents the earliest complete mitogenome of a post-Columbian domestic horse in the Western Hemisphere offering a unique opportunity to clarify the phylogeographic history of this species in the Americas. Our data supports the hypothesis of an Iberian origin for this early translocated individual and clarifies its phylogenetic relationship with modern breeds in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1825, France conditioned its grant of recognition to the new nation of Haiti on the payment of 150 million francs plus trade benefits. The payments were, at least in part, compensation for the losses that French plantation owners suffered, a key part of which was the loss of enslaved Haitians, who took their freedom via revolution. France has officially apologized and acknowledged a "moral debt" that it owes the Haitian people. But is there a legal debt that Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world, could claim today from France, one of the richest? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Études Caribéennes is the property of Etudes Caribeennes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: In mass vaccination campaigns, large volumes of data must be managed efficiently and accurately. In a reactive oral cholera vaccination (OCV) campaign in rural Haiti during an ongoing epidemic, we used a mobile health (mHealth) system to manage data on 50,000 participants in two isolated communities. Methods: Data were collected using 7-inch tablets. Teams pre-registered and distributed vaccine cards with unique barcodes to vaccine-eligible residents during a census in February 2012. First stored on devices, data were uploaded nightly via Wi-fi to a web-hosted database. During the vaccination campaign between April and June 2012, residents presented their cards at vaccination posts and their barcodes were scanned. Vaccinee data from the census were pre-loaded on tablets to autopopulate the electronic form. Nightly analysis of the day's community coverage informed the following day's vaccination strategy. We generated case-finding reports allowing us to identify those who had not yet been vaccinated. Results: During 40 days of vaccination, we collected approximately 1.9 million pieces of data. A total of 45,417 people received at least one OCV dose; of those, 90.8% were documented to have received 2 doses. Though mHealth required up-front financial investment and training, it reduced the need for paper registries and manual data entry, which would have been costly, time-consuming, and is known to increase error. Using Global Positioning System coordinates, we mapped vaccine posts, population size, and vaccine coverage to understand the reach of the campaign. The hardware and software were usable by high school-educated staff. Conclusion: The use of mHealth technology in an OCV campaign in rural Haiti allowed timely creation of an electronic registry with population-level census data, and a targeted vaccination strategy in a dispersed rural population receiving a two-dose vaccine regimen. The use of mHealth should be strongly considered in mass vaccination campaigns in future initiatives. Author Summary: The World Health Organization (WHO) recently endorsed the creation of a global oral cholera vaccine (OCV) stockpile as part of an integrated, strategic framework to address the re-emerging threat that cholera causes worldwide. In conjunction, the WHO also called for continued monitoring and evaluation around the use of OCV in different settings. In response to the cholera epidemic in Haiti that began in October 2010, Partners In Health, an implementing partner of Haiti's Ministry of Health, vaccinated 50,000 Haitians in two rural communities in the Artibonite Valley in 2012. In this paper, the authors describe the use of mobile health (mHealth) technology for data collection and geospatial mapping to document this rural OCV campaign, focusing on the utility, benefits, and challenges of mHealth in a reactive campaign in the midst of the ongoing epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Jurídica Cesumar: Mestrado is the property of Revista Juridica Cesumar - Mestrado and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: To stem the HIV epidemic among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), prevention programs must target services towards those most at risk for HIV. This paper investigates approaches to estimate HIV risk and map the spatial heterogeneity of at-risk populations in three countries: Eswatini, Haiti and Mozambique. Methods: We analyzed HIV biomarker and risk factor data from recent population-based household surveys. We characterized risk using three approaches: complementary log-log regression, latent class analysis (LCA), and presence of at least one risk factor. We calculated the proportion and 95 percent confidence intervals of HIV-negative AGYW at risk across the three methods and employed Chi-square tests to investigate associations between risk classification and HIV status. Using geolocated survey data at enumeration clusters and high-resolution satellite imagery, we applied algorithms to predict the number and proportion of at-risk AGYW at hyperlocal levels. Results: The any-risk approach yielded the highest proportion of at-risk and HIV-negative AGYW across five-year age bands: 26%-49% in Eswatini, 52%-67% in Haiti, and 32%-84% in Mozambique. Using LCA, between 8%-16% of AGYW in Eswatini, 37%-62% in Haiti, and 56%-80% in Mozambique belonged to a high vulnerability profile. In Haiti and Mozambique, the regression-based profile yielded the lowest estimate of at-risk AGYW. In general, AGYW characterized as "at risk" across the three methods had significantly higher odds of HIV infection. Hyperlocal maps indicated high levels of spatial heterogeneity in HIV risk prevalence and population density of at-risk AGYW within countries. Conclusion: Characterizing risk among AGYW can help HIV prevention programs better understand the differential effect of multiple risk factors, facilitate early identification of high-risk AGYW, and design tailored interventions. Hyperlocal mapping of these at-risk populations can help program planners target prevention interventions to geographic areas with populations at greatest risk for HIV to achieve maximal impact on HIV incidence reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The problem of the prevailing occurrence of hypertension and diabetes cases quickly took the world by storm. Rural areas became even more exposed to the negative issues associated with these health conditions due to the lack of a skilled workforce and educational programs for patients. Within the framework of the current paper, the researcher utilized the data from two mission trips in Thomonde, Haiti, to gain more insight into chronic health issues among rural Haitian residents. Methods: This study employed a retrospective analytical cross-sectional retrospective, descriptive design utilizing data obtained from two mission trips in Thomonde, Haiti in the areas of Palmay, Savane Plate, and La Hoye. The information was analyzed with the help of the SPSS software. A total of 403 adult patient visits across the three sites and two visits were included in the analysis. Results: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (25.8%) was the most common diagnosis found in the rural Haitian communes among adults in the total sample (N = 403), followed by Hypertension (16.8%) and Dehydration (13.9%). Among women, significant differences were found by location for pregnancy. The greatest number of pregnancies were observed in La Hoye (19.0%). Conclusion: The core implication of these findings was the significance of disseminating knowledge across rural areas while conducting similar retrospective studies to check progress. Real-life application of relevant knowledge could be beneficial for both patients and care providers operating in rural locations that are the hardest to reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholera is a waterborne disease that continues to pose serious public health problems in many developing countries. Increasing water and sanitation coverage is a goal for local authorities in these countries, as it can eliminate one of the root causes of cholera transmission. The SIWDR (susceptible–infected–water–dumpsite–recovered) model is proposed here to evaluate the effects of the improved coverage of water and sanitation services in a community at risk of a cholera outbreak. This paper provides a mathematical study of the dynamics of the water and sanitation (WatSan) deficits and their public health impact in a community. The theoretical analysis of the SIWDR model gave a certain threshold value (known as the basic reproductive number and denoted R 0 ) to stop the transmission of cholera. It was found that the disease-free equilibrium was globally asymptotically stable whenever R 0 ≤ 1 . The unique endemic equilibrium was globally asymptotically stable whenever R 0 > 1 . Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the relative importance of model parameters to disease transmission and prevention. The numerical simulation results, using realistic parameter values in describing cholera transmission in Haiti, showed that improving the drinking water supply, wastewater and sewage treatment, and solid waste disposal services would be effective strategies for controlling the transmission pathways of this waterborne disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast number of existing buildings were constructed before the development and enforcement of seismic design codes, which run into the risk of being severely damaged under the action of seismic excitations. This poses not only a threat to the life of people but also affects the socio-economic stability in the affected area. Therefore, it is necessary to assess such buildings' present vulnerability to make an educated decision regarding risk mitigation by seismic strengthening techniques such as retrofitting. However, it is economically and timely manner not feasible to inspect, repair, and augment every old building on an urban scale. As a result, a reliable rapid screening methods, namely Rapid Visual Screening (RVS), have garnered increasing interest among researchers and decision-makers alike. In this study, the effectiveness of five different Machine Learning (ML) techniques in vulnerability prediction applications have been investigated. The damage data of four different earthquakes from Ecuador, Haiti, Nepal, and South Korea, have been utilized to train and test the developed models. Eight performance modifiers have been implemented as variables with a supervised ML. The investigations on this paper illustrate that the assessed vulnerability classes by ML techniques were very close to the actual damage levels observed in the buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: For several decades, the rate of caesarean section (CS) has been increasing in the world. In some countries, the CS rate is below the WHO recommended range (10–15%), while in other countries, it is significantly higher. The aim of this paper was to identify individual and community-level factors associated with CS in Haiti. Methods: Secondary data analysis was conducted on nationally representative cross-sectional survey data from the 2016–2017 Haitian Demographic and Health Survey (HDHS). The analysis was restricted to 6303 children born in 5 years prior the survey (of the interviewed women). The study population' characteristics, and the prevalence of CS were analysed using descriptive analysis (univariate/bivariate). In addition, multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with CS. Both descriptive and multivariate analysis were conducted using STATA 16.0 software (Stata Corp, Tex, USA). Statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05. Results: The overall prevalence of CS delivery was estimated at 5.4% (95% CI 4.8–6.0) in Haiti. Results also revealed that mothers aged 35 and above (aOR = 1.38; 95% CI 1.00–1.96); who attended secondary (aOR = 1.95; 95% CI 1.39–2.76) and higher education level (aOR = 3.25; 95% CI 1.92–5.49); who were covered by health insurance (aOR = 2.57; 95% CI 1.57–4.19); with less than 3 children (aOR = 4.13; 95% CI 2.18–7.85) or 3–4 children (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI 1.09–3.94); who received 9 or more antenatal visits (aOR = 2.21; 95% CI 1.40–3.50) were significantly more likely to deliver by CS. Children in communities with high preponderance of private health facilities had greater odds to be delivered through CS (aOR = 1.90; 95% CI 1.25–2.85). Furthermore, children with an average birth weight (aOR = 0.66; 95% CI 0.48–0.91) were less likely to be delivered through CS than their counterparts with high birth weight. Conclusions: While the CS prevalence was low in Haiti, it masks significant geographic, social and economic disparities. To better develop and implement maternal and child health programs that address CS deliveries, the government authorities and NGOs operating in the field of women's health in Haiti should take these disparities into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The health burden in developing world informal settlements often coincides with a lack of spatial data that could be used to guide intervention strategies. Spatial video (SV) has proven to be a useful tool to collect environmental and social data at a granular scale, though the effort required to turn these spatially encoded video frames into maps limits sustainability and scalability. In this paper we explore the use of convolution neural networks (CNN) to solve this problem by automatically identifying disease related environmental risks in a series of SV collected from Haiti. Our objective is to determine the potential of machine learning in health risk mapping for these environments by assessing the challenges faced in adequately training the required classification models. Results: We show that SV can be a suitable source for automatically identifying and extracting health risk features using machine learning. While well-defined objects such as drains, buckets, tires and animals can be efficiently classified, more amorphous masses such as trash or standing water are difficult to classify. Our results further show that variations in the number of image frames selected, the image resolution, and combinations of these can be used to improve the overall model performance. Conclusion: Machine learning in combination with spatial video can be used to automatically identify environmental risks associated with common health problems in informal settlements, though there are likely to be variations in the type of data needed for training based on location. Success based on the risk type being identified are also likely to vary geographically. However, we are confident in identifying a series of best practices for data collection, model training and performance in these settings. We also discuss the next step of testing these findings in other environments, and how adding in the simultaneously collected geographic data could be used to create an automatic health risk mapping tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) has been widely adopted as an alternative for authoritative geographic information in disaster management considering its up-to-date data. OpenStreetMap, in particular, is now aiming at crisis mapping for humanitarian purpose. This paper illustrated that natural disaster played an essential role in updating OpenStreetMap data after Haiti was hit by Hurricane Matthew in October, 2016. Spatial-temporal analysis of updated OSM data was conducted in this paper. Correlation of features was also studied to figure out whether updates of data were coincidence or the results of the hurricane. Spatial pattern matched the damaged areas and temporal changes fitted the time when disaster occurred. High level of correlation values of features were recorded when hurricane occurred, suggesting that updates in data were led by the hurricane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The search for Earthquake (EQ) precursors in the ionosphere and atmosphere from satellite data has provided significant information about the upcoming main shock. This study presents the abnormal atmospheric and ionospheric perturbations associated with the Mw 7.2 Haiti EQ on 14 August 2021 at geographical coordinates (18° N, 73° W) and shallow hypocentral depth of 10 km from the data of permanent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations near the epicenter, followed by Swarm satellites data. The total vertical electron (VTEC) anomalies occur within a 5-day window before the main shock in the analysis of nearby operation stations, followed by Swarm (A and C satellites) ionospheric anomalies in the same 5-day window before the main shock. Moreover, the geomagnetic activities are completely quiet within 10 days before and 10 days after the main shock. Similarly, the atmospheric parameters endorse the EQ anomalies within 5 days before the main shock day. The evolution of gases from the lithosphere at the epicentral region possessed significant atmospheric and ionospheric perturbations within the EQ preparation period of 5-day before the main shock under the hypothesis of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (LAIC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on abolitionism in Pennsylvania during the time of the Haitian Revolution, focusing on the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS). It examines the society's international and Atlantic connections and comments on Benjamin Giroud, a French republican and anti-slavery advocate. The author considers the effects of radicalism and slave violence on the PAS. The French abolition society Les Amis des Noirs is also examined.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the island of Hispaniola and are broadly similar in terms of geography and historical institutions, yet their growth performance has diverged remarkably. The countries had the same per capita real GDP in 1960, but, by 2005, the Dominican Republic's per capita real GDP had tripled, whereas that of Haiti had halved. Drawing on the growth literature, this paper explains this divergence through a combined approach that includes a panel regression to study growth determinants across a broad group of countries, and a case study framework to better understand the specific policy decisions and external conditions that have shaped economic outcomes in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. This paper finds that initial conditions cannot fully explain the growth divergence, but rather policy decisions have played a central role in the growth trends of the two countries.IMF Staff Papers (2009) 56, 323–349. doi:10.1057/imfsp.2008.40; published online 3 March 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since drought is a multifaceted phenomenon, more than one variable should be considered for a proper understanding of such an extreme event in order to implement adequate risk mitigation strategies such as weather or agricultural indices insurance programmes or disaster risk financing tools. This paper proposes a new composite drought index that accounts for both meteorological and agricultural drought conditions by combining in a probabilistic framework two consolidated drought indices: the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the vegetation health index (VHI). The new index, called the probabilistic precipitation vegetation index (PPVI), is scalable, transferable all over the globe and can be updated in near real time. Furthermore, it is a remote-sensing product, since precipitation is retrieved from satellite data and the VHI is a remote-sensing index. In addition, a set of rules to objectively identify drought events is developed and implemented. Both the index and the set of rules have been applied to Haiti. The performance of the PPVI has been evaluated by means of a receiver operating characteristic curve and compared to that of the SPI and VHI considered separately. The new index outperformed SPI and VHI both in drought identification and characterization, thus revealing potential for an effective implementation within drought early-warning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building is an indispensable part of human life which provides a place for people to live, study, work, and engage in various cultural and social activities. People are exposed to earthquakes, and damaged buildings caused by earthquakes are one of the main threats. It is essential to retrieve the detailed information of affected buildings after earthquakes. Very high-resolution satellite imagery plays a key role in retrieving building damage information since it captures imagery quickly and effectively after the disaster. In this paper, the pretrained Visual Geometry Group (VGG)Net model was applied for identifying collapsed buildings induced by the 2010 Haiti earthquake using preand post-event remotely sensed space imagery, and the fine-tuned pretrained VGGNet model was compared with the VGGNet model trained from scratch. The effects of dataset augmentation and freezing different intermediate layers were also explored. The experimental results demonstrated that the fine-tuned VGGNet model outperformed the VGGNet model trained from scratch with increasing overall accuracy (OA) from 83.38% to 85.19% and Kappa from 60.69% to 67.14%. By taking advantage of dataset augmentation, OA and Kappa went up to 88.83% and 75.33% respectively, and the collapsed buildings were better recognized with a larger producer accuracy of 86.31%. The present study showed the potential of using the pretrained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model to identify collapsed buildings caused by earthquakes using very high-resolution satellite imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did Africans create homes for themselves and maintain ancestral practices after being forcefully taken across the Middle Passage as enslaved people into various regions of the New and Old Worlds? In the Americas, they found themselves in a place clearly distinct from African cultural and geographical landscapes and were forced to adapt to strange climates and contend with alien cultures unfamiliar to those of their homeland. Rather than being completely steamrolled by colonial pressure, however, Africans of various ethnicities actively contended with the diverse influences of the colonial context. Such practices have, in turn, shaped the continued cultural diversity of the Americas to this day. This paper explores the diffusion and vitality of Yoruba culture, in particular throughout the nineteenth century in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago, where Yoruba forms of religion, Roman Catholic sensibilities, and indigenous cosmographies formed hybridized spiritualties and worldviews. This paper interprets historical evidence alongside secondary sources and contemporary cases in order to evaluate how the conjunctural forces brought about by slavery, colonialism, and inter-culturation occasioned the formation of Yoruba Atlantic and Afro-Latinx religions such as Candomble, Santeria, and Voodoo, as well as Orisha practices. This paper also examines how such spiritualties and worldviews have contributed to the complex social and cultural composition of the Americas in the modern world. It pays special attention to the conflictual and creative energies surrounding cultural diffusion and cross-cultural migration. Although various African ethnicities were brought across the Atlantic, Yoruba cultural practices have survived with a sustained intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haiti announced in 2018 its aim to achieve universal health coverage. In this paper, we discuss what this objective means for the country and what next steps should be taken. To contextualize the notion, we framed Haiti en route to the 2030 goal and analyzed qualitatively the status quo in terms of geographic, financial, and service access. For each dimension, we focused on the context, the government's policies and political agendas, their implementation progress, and key influential factors. Our analysis found little progress and numerous challenges. Geographic access was limited due principally to the insufficient number of facilities, difficulties in reaching health facilities, and local customs. Financial coverage was low because of the government's insufficient budgets, inefficient budget allocation, and ineffective management. Service access also had room for significant improvement for a lack of basic infrastructure and resources, gaps between the essential service package guidelines, health professionals' skills, and the needs, as well as deficiencies in people-centered care. These factors affected not only health service coverage but also its quality. We found that the root causes of these issues were composed of unstable financing mechanisms, opportunistic resource allocation, and ineffective management control systems. We suggest that to overcome these issues and achieve universal health coverage with decent service quality, Haiti's health system needs to be reformed by implementing strategic financing, decentralized management systems, and community engagement in primary health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectiveness in humanitarian supply chain operations depends on the critical last mile between beneficiaries and needed supplies or services. Often, the last mile is traveled by the beneficiaries themselves. This paper's focus is on systems in which beneficiaries make autonomous decisions about where to seek supplies or services using a utility function that captures distance, congestion, and the relative importance of the two factors. We model beneficiary behavior as a network congestion game where the resources are a set of facilities from which individuals choose. Importantly, our models capture the fact that the relative importance of distance and congestion may be specific to both the individual and the facility; we represent this using a factor called the congestion weight. We prove new bounds on the system performance that results from decentralized beneficiary decisions in comparison to centralized optimal assignments, and we introduce mechanisms for achieving centrally optimal outcomes even in the presence of decentralization. We demonstrate the methods with data from the international public health response to the Haiti cholera epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses how weaknesses in the governance of the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector may present barriers to the assurance of human rights to WASH. The analytical framework in this article involves four key actors involved in the service-delivery process, operating across a three-way accountability connection linking the State, service providers, and citizens. The framework, drawn from the World Bank's 2004 World Development Report, is applied to the following countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Mozambique, and Niger. The findings suggest that breakdowns in provision can be strongly linked to disruptions in the accountability association between the State and WASH providers. Informed by the human-rights literature, suggestions are made as to how to increase financing and coverage for the sector. These include encouraging greater coordination across different levels of government, improving the governance structure, and reducing funding gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite many efforts to provide children with legal existence over the last decades, 1 in 4 children under the age of 5 (166 million) do not officially exist, with limited possibility to enjoy their human rights. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Haiti has one of the highest rates of undocumented births. This study aimed to analyze the prevalence and the determinant factors of undocumented childhood in Haiti. Methods: For analysis of undocumented childhood and related socioeconomic determinants, data from the 2016/17 Haiti demographic and health survey were used. The prevalence and the associated factors were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the binary logistic regression model. Results: The prevalence of undocumented childhood in Haiti was 23% (95% CI: 21.9–24.0) among children under-five. Among the drivers of undocumented births, mothers with no formal education (aOR = 3.88; 95% CI 2.21–6.81), children aged less than 1 year (aOR = 20.47; 95% CI 16.83–24.89), children adopted or in foster care (aOR = 2.66; 95% CI 1.67–4.24), children from the poorest regions like "Artibonite" (aOR = 2.19; 95% CI 1.63–2.94) or "Centre" (aOR = 1.51; 95% CI 1.09–2.10) or "Nord-Ouest" (aOR = 1.61; 95% CI 1.11–2.34), children from poorest households (aOR = 6.25; 95% CI 4.37–8.93), and children whose mothers were dead (aOR = 2.45; 95% CI 1.33–4.49) had higher odds to be undocumented. Conclusion: According to our findings, there is an institutional necessity to bring birth documentation to underprivileged households, particularly those in the poorest regions where socioeconomic development programs are also needed. Interventions should focus on uneducated mothers who are reknown for giving birth outside of medical facilities. Therefore, an awareness campaign should be implemented to influence the children late-registering behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The J9 Plus (J9) maternal-child accompaniment program is based on four pillars: group antenatal care (GANC), group pediatric care, psychosocial support, and community-based care. We aimed to evaluate the impact of the J9 model of care on perinatal outcomes. Methodology: We conducted a convergent mixed methods study of maternal-newborn dyads born in 2019 at Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais. Quantitative data was collected retrospectively to compare dyads receiving J9 care to usual care. A secondary analysis of qualitative data described patient perspectives of J9 care. Results: Antenatal care attendance was significantly higher among women in J9 (n = 524) compared to usual care (n = 523), with 490(93%) and 189(36%) having >4 visits, respectively; p <0.001, as was post-partum visit attendance [271(52%) compared to 84(16%), p<0.001] and use of post-partum family planning methods [98(19%) compared to 47(9%), p = 0.003]. Incidence of pre-eclampsia with severe features was significantly lower in the J9 group [44(9%)] compared to the usual care group [73(14%)], p <0.001. Maternal and neonatal mortality and low birth weight did not differ across groups. Cesarean delivery [103(20%) and 82(16%), p<0.001] and preterm birth [118 (24%)] and 80 (17%), p <0.001] were higher in the J9 group compared to usual care, respectively. In the qualitative analysis, ease of access to high-quality care, meaningful social support, and maternal empowerment through education were identified as key contributors to these outcomes. Conclusion: Compared to usual care, the J9 Plus maternal-child accompaniment model of care is associated with increased engagement in antenatal and postpartum care, increased utilization of post-partum family planning, and lower incidence of pre-eclampsia with severe features, which remains a leading cause of maternal mortality in Haiti. The J9 accompaniment approach to care is an empowering model that has the potential to be replicated in similar settings to improve quality of care and outcomes globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Paper US$ 36.95) In I Haiti Fights Back i , Yveline Alexis intervenes in the scholarship on the U.S. military occupation of Haiti (1915-34) by presenting a tête-à-tête between the collective Haitian memory of anti-occupation organizing led by Charlemagne Péralte and the U.S. archival and political rendering of him. Yveline Alexis, I Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte i . Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte, by Yveline Alexis. [Extracted from the article]

Background: The advancement of otologic surgery in low-resource settings has been limited by the cost and transport of surgical equipment. This study compared the transportation costs of an otologic microscopic surgical setup (MSS) versus an endoscopic surgical setup (ESS) in low- and low to middle-income countries (LMICs) for surgical teaching. Methods: Dimensions of microscopes, endoscopes and associated surgical instruments were used to calculate shipping costs from Minneapolis, MN, USA to Kenya, Haiti and Sri Lanka. Results: The average cost of internationally shipping the ESS is less than the MSS in Kenya (ESS: USD 1344.03; MSS: USD 20,947.00; p = 0.370), Haiti (ESS: USD 549.11; MSS: USD 1679.00; p < 0.05) and Sri Lanka (ESS: USD 945.38; MSS: USD 8490.57; p = 0.377). Freight shipping was required for the MSS while the ESS can be packed into an international checked bag for USD 35.00 USD. Discussion: The ESS has fewer logistical barriers than the MSS, making the endoscope a feasible option for surgical teaching in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-communicable disease diagnosis frequently relies on biochemical measurements but laboratory infrastructure in low-income settings is often insufficient and distances to clinics may be vast. We present a model for point of care (POC) epidemiology as used in our study of chronic disease in the Haiti Health Study, in rural and urban Haiti. Point of care testing (POCT) of creatinine, cholesterol, and hemoglobin A1c as well as physical measurements of weight, height, and waist circumference allowed for diagnosis of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemias, and obesity. Methods and troubleshooting techniques for the data collection of this study are presented. We discuss our method of community-health worker (CHW) training, community engagement, study design, and field data collection. We also discuss the machines used and our quality control across CHWs and across geographical regions. Pitfalls tended to include equipment malfunction, transportation issues, and cultural differences. May this paper provide information for those attempting to perform similar diagnostic and screening studies using POCT in resource poor settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]