We describe the design and report baseline results of a cluster-randomized intervention to determine the importance of bovines for Schistosoma japonicum transmission in southern China. The study involves four matched village pairs in Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces, with a village within each pair randomly selected as intervention (human and bovine praziquantel treatment) or control (human praziqua...

BACKGROUND The village doctors have served rural residents for many decades in China, and their role in rural health system has been highly praised in the world; unfortunately, less attention has been paid to the health workforce during the ambitious healthcare reform in recent years. Therefore, we conducted a longitudinal study to explore the current situation and track the future evolution of...

This article critically examines engagements of village leaders in an NGO-facilitated participatory conservation program in eastern Indonesia. It explores how the program's implementation strengthened leadership legitimacy of a dominant customary social group. Customary leaders ensured distribution according to particular norms, and in organizing village governance upheld specific interests and...

Between 1978 and 1980, we investigated and compared the dietary intake of fish meat, platelet function, rheological properties of blood and mortality rate due to thrombotic cardiovascular diseases between the residents of fishing and farming villages. Notable finding is that the dietary intake of EPA in the residents of fishing village was nearly 3 times (2.5 g/day) higher than that (0.9g/day) ...

This paper attempts to identify patterns of female work participation in more than 578 thousand villages of India using the data mining approach. The analysis is based on an index of participation that has been developed for the purpose and takes into the consideration both the extent and the intensity of participation in productive activities. The analysis reveals that Indian villages can be g...

Village banks and other financial institutions often have very simple contracts that seem to rule out some transactions on an ad hoc basis. In one Thai village bank, for example, all loans must be in multiples of one thousand baht. If you want to borrow 1,500 baht, you are out of luck. All of the loans that this bank makes must be repaid on December 31, and the same amount must be repaid regard...

Modern genetic samples are commonly used to trace dog origins, which entails untested assumptions that village dogs reflect indigenous ancestry or that breed origins can be reliably traced to particular regions. We used high-resolution Y chromosome markers (SNP and STR) and mitochondrial DNA to analyze 495 village dogs/dingoes from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, along with 138 dogs from >3...

This paper presents the baseline of a framework for building electronic villages of local interest as communities of practice. In this context, an electronic village is considered as a multi-sector virtual organization in which electronic squads are formed as coalitions of representatives from different sectors to work together for a period of time to realize a common mission. We assume tight c...

The spatial and temporal distribution of Anopheles gambiae mosquitos in houses in the village of Sille in Ethiopia was monitored in 1990-91. Monthly mosquito densities in over 300 houses were obtained, and the data for each month were plotted on maps, which indicated clustering of mosquitos within the village. Spatial analysis using "kriging" techniques demonstrated clustering towards the edges...