Objectives: We aimed to understand the information architecture and degree of integration of mortality surveillance systems in Ghana and Peru.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using a combination of document review and unstructured interviews to describe and analyse the sub-systems collecting mortality data.Results: We identified 18 and 16 information subsystems with independent databases capturing death events in Peru and Ghana respectively. The mortality information architecture was highly fragmented with a multiplicity of unconnected data silos and with formal and informal data collection systems.Conclusion: Reliable and timely information about who dies where and from what underlying cause is essential to reporting progress on Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring policies are responding to population health dynamics, and understanding the impact of threats and events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating systems hosted in different parts of government remains a challenge for countries and limits the ability of statistics systems to produce accurate and timely information. Our study exposes multiple opportunities to improve the design of mortality surveillance systems by integrating existing subsystems currently operating in silos.

Background: Potentially toxic metals in soils are a threat to food security and human health because it enters the food chain through crop uptake. Hence, it is critical to understand the levels of potentially toxic metals in soils due to agricultural land use patterns and the approach to remove them from the soil.Objective: This review discussed the effect of different land-use patterns on heavy metal accumulation and their removal using biochar.Methods: A desktop review employing preferred reporting items for systematic review and metaanalysis was used to analyse information from peer-reviewed papers including journal articles, books, thesis, and reports.Results: It was shown that potentially toxic metals mainly found in the soil include arsenic (As), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), antimony (Sb), mercury, thorium (Th), lead, silicon (Si), and selenium (Se). The sources of these potentially toxic metals accumulation in soils were the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, irrigation, use of pesticides and weedicides, and atmospheric deposition. However, different land-use patterns (greenhouse field, vegetable field soils, forest field, and maize field soil) had a significant accumulation of heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Zn) due to increasing crop yield after the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Biochar was found to be effective in the removal of 18 to 40% of these potentially toxic metals from the soil. The mechanisms of removal included precipitation, physical sorption, complexation, ion exchange, and electrostatic interaction. Conclusion:Biochar applied alone or with compost is highly stable to remove heavy metals accumulated in soils due to land use patterns.

Potentially toxic metals in soils are a threat to food security and harmful to human because it enters the food chain through crop uptake. Hence, it is critical to know the levels of potentially toxic metals in soils due to agricultural land use patterns and how they can be removed from the soil. This review discussed the effect of different land-use patterns on heavy metal accumulation, their removal using biochar. A desktop review which employed PRISMA was used to put together information from peer-reviewed papers including journal articles, books, thesis and reports. It was shown that potentially toxic metals mainly found in the soil include; As, Cu, Cd, Zn, Cr, Co, Ni, Sb, Hg, Th, Pb, Si, and Se. The sources of these potentially toxic metals accumulation in soils were organic and inorganic fertilizer application, irrigation, pesticides and weedicides application and atmospheric deposition. However, different land-use patterns (greenhouse field, vegetable field soils, forest field, and maize field soil) had a significant accumulation of heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Zn) due to increasing crop yield through the application of fertilizers and pesticides. Biochar was found to be effective in the removal of 18 to 40% of these potentially toxic metals from the soil. The mechanisms of removal were; precipitation, physical sorption, complexation, and ion exchange and electrostatic interaction. It can be concluded that biochar applied solely or in addition to compost has strong stability to remove heavy metals accumulated in soils due to land use patterns.