This study examined the association between food insecurity, determined by a modified version of the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (US HFSSM), and total daily per capita (DPC) consumption (measured as household expenditures) in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, and the Philippines. Household food insecurity was determined by an adapted 9-item US HFSSM version. A short version of the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) consumption module measured household expenditures. Focus groups were used to adapt the survey instrument to each local context. The sample (n approximately 330 per country) includes residents of urban and rural areas. A 12-month food expenditure aggregate was generated as part of the total household expenditures calculation. DPC food expenditure, which represented over 60% of the total household consumption, as well as expenditures on specific food groups correlated with food insecurity both as a continuous Food Insecurity Score (FinSS) and a tricategorical food insecurity status variable. ANOVA and regression analysis were executed adjusting for social and demographic covariates. Food-secure households have significantly higher (P < 0.05) total DPC food expenditures as well as expenditures on animal source foods, vegetables, and fats and oils than moderately and severely food-insecure households. The results offer evidence that the US HFSSM is able to discriminate between households at different levels of food insecurity status in diverse developing world settings.

Worldwide, current public health programmes and health systems are proving to be inadequate to meet population needs. The microfinance sector offers an underutilized opportunity for delivery of health-related services to many hard-to-reach populations.

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This study attempts to demonstrate the possible role of agonistic behavior and vocalization in maintaining the spatial organization found in a population of 12 eastern chipmunks, Tamias striatus. The home ranges of the chipmunks overlapped almost entirely, but their burrow entrances were regularly spaced in the study area and their core areas did not overlap. Agonistic behavior was studied while attracting the chipmunks to small piles of sunflower seeds. Chasing occurred most often in 398 agonistic encounters. The chase orders at 15 locations in the study area were remarkably different. Reversal of dominance consistently occurred between neighboring chipmunks. Each chipmunk seemed to maintain a dominance area centered around its burrow entrance. This dominance area roughly coincided with its core area. If reversal of dominance with difference in space is accepted as a criterion of territorial behavior, chipmunks seem to exhibit territorial behavior. Chipmunk vocalizations form a graded sound system. There is a gradation of both temporal patterning and frequency. All vocalizations seem to function as alarm calls. One of the vocalizations, chipping, may also function as an agonistic signal. Reciprocal chasing between neighboring chipmunks may in part explain the regular spacing of burrow entrances and the mutual exclusiveness of the core areas. Since each animal's dominance area centers around its burrow entrance, the chipmunk can, by chasing, prevent another chipmunk, from digging or using a burrow near its own. Since the dominance area roughly coincides with its core area, the animal can likewise prevent other chipmunks from frequenctly using its core area. It is also possible that the vocalizations of the chipmunks, especially chipping, help maintain the spatial organization of the population. The chipping could well advertise the presence of a chipmunk in its dominance area, thereby dissuading intrusion by neighboring chipmunks.