No abstract

Aiming to strengthen the accessibility of ultrasound technology to rural populations, an advanced strategy ultrasound programme was implemented in the health districts of Sedhiou, Oussouye, Bignona and Ziguinchor all located within Casamance in Senegal. Within the first year of activity (January 1, 2001-December 31, 2001), the team from the regional health centre (RHC) was dispatched 56 times. Ultrasound scans were performed in the homes of 1,273 patients among which 192 were referred to the RHC for specialised follow-up and treatment. The financial benefit for the RHC totaled 3,120,000 francs; 2,612,500 francs for the district hospital; and 3,561,300 francs for the population at large. The advanced strategy for performing ultrasound scans has therefore been economically profitable at the community level as much as at the level of health structures. Through supporting the activities of the district hospitals, the RHC contributed technical support and increased the potential, not solely for the treatment of disease but for the health services overall. The revenue generated has given managers a greater possibility to improve health care and services. The decentralisation programme and reduction in the cost have decreased the unsatisfied needs in ultrasound services by making the technology more financially and geographically accessible. Thus, by saving input costs in terms of time, transportation and capital, the practice of ultrasound scans in district hospitals has been strengthened and has improved the capacity to provide care and treat the population's health problems. The continuation of this programme is advantageous, but necessitates two complementary actions: enhancing of the technical level and capacity of the district hospitals with the installation of ultrasound technology and equipment, and raising the level of knowledge by training staff in administering ultrasound scans.

No abstract

The increasing energy demand coupled with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the threat of exhaustion of oil reserves make us consider a possible recourse to the use of biomass waste as a source of renewable energy. Nowadays, gasification is not yet economically and operationally attractive for the power industry and more research is needed to facilitate the process and improve the desirability of the gasification process. Gasification tests were conducted on five wastes char mainly of agro-sylvo-pastoral residues, in order to study the behaviors of char conversion based on experimental data. Peanut shells, palm shells, cashews nut shells, cashew wood and "kaicedrat" wood char obtained by pyrolysis at 450°C are used. The samples were gasified at three different reaction temperatures (950 to 1050°C) in a fixed bed reactor, using steam or CO 2 as gasification agent and with average fraction of particle size 630 and 3000 µm. The experimental parameters, which affect the char's reactivity, are reviewed similarly to those related to the char and its structural features and operation parameters. Gasification kinetic conversion was studied at different models: the volume reaction model (VRM) and shrinking core model (SCM) in order to interpret the char conversion data. Further, the activation energy and pre-exponential factor were determined using the Arrhenius correlation. The experimental results showed that more syngas ((CO + H 2)) of high quality were obtained at 1000 to 1050°C during char gasification with steam or CO 2. The present results showed that temperature has a positive effect on kinetic char conversion. In addition, the low heating values obtained as a function of temperature depend on the nature of sample. For further investigation, it can be shown that the reaction rate is dependent on the char samples. Thus comparing the five biomasses, particular importance about reactivity and lower heating value (LHV) is attached to cashew nut shells, palm shells and peanut shells.