bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring Youth Perceptions About Cancer Prevention and Preferences for Education: a Qualitative Study
Authors: Abraham Olufunmilola , Szela Lisa , Feng Emilie , Egbujor Maryann , Gay Sommer
Published: August 2021

This study aimed to characterize adolescents’ perspectives on cancer and cancer prevention and to explore their preferences for cancer education. A total of 188 middle and high school students participated in 25 focus groups. Focus groups were led by study team members and included five to ten participants each. Adolescents were asked to discuss their cancer and cancer prevention knowledge, sources of cancer education, and preferences for cancer prevention education. Focus groups were audio-recorded, and professionally transcribed. Transcripts were content and thematically analyzed by two study team members using NVivo qualitative data software. Six themes were identified in focus groups: knowledge about cancer, negative perceptions of cancer, awareness of cancer prevention, engagement in cancer prevention, facilitators and barriers for action, and preferences for cancer education. Adolescents described a wide range of cancer education sources, including friends, family, healthcare professionals, school, technology, and pamphlets. Participants associated cancer with negative emotions, such as sadness and fear. Participants expressed interest in learning about cancer and cancer prevention, but also identified barriers to engaging in preventative behaviors, such as discomfort, lack of knowledge, and lack of personal connection to cancer. Adolescents preferred learning through personal presentations, online videos, school, educational games, and social situations. Adolescence is a critical period for learning and developing healthy behaviors. Awareness of cancer and cancer prevention is crucial to lowering cancer risk in the future. To be effective, cancer education for adolescents should target specific areas of cancer prevention and address barriers to engagement in preventative behaviors.
Holism as the empirical significance of symmetries
Authors: Gomes Henrique
Published: August 2021

Not all symmetries are on a par. For instance, within Newtonian mechanics, we seem to have a good grasp on the empirical significance of boosts, by applying it to subsystems. This is exemplified by the thought experiment known as Galileo’s ship: the inertial state of motion of a ship is immaterial to how events unfold in the cabin, but is registered in the values of relational quantities such as the distance and velocity of the ship relative to the shore. But the significance of gauge symmetries seems less clear. For example, can gauge transformations in Yang-Mills theory—taken as mere descriptive redundancy—exhibit a similar relational empirical significance as the boosts of Galileo’s ship? This question has been debated in the last fifteen years in philosophy of physics. I will argue that the answer is ‘yes’, but only for a finite subset of gauge transformations, and under special conditions. Under those conditions, we can mathematically identify empirical significance with a failure of supervenience: the state of the Universe is not uniquely determined by the intrinsic state of its isolated subsystems. Empirical significance is therefore encoded in those relations between subsystems that stand apart from their intrinsic states.
Towards fuel antioxidants of new types
Authors: Veliyeva Leyla , Sadıqova Arzu , Israfilova Zubeyda , Rzaeva Irada , Kurbanova Malahat , Farzaliyev Vagif , Maharramov Abel , Sujayev Afsun
Published: August 2021

To find novel classes of potential fuel additives of multivalent activity, particularly antioxidants, a series of recently synthesized ethyl-6-amino-5-cyan-methyl-4-aryl-4H-pyran-3-carboxylates have been investigated using model oxidative reactions. The compounds studied appear to be prospective inhibitors of hydrocarbons oxidation. Some of them are antioxidants of combined action, breaking the chains of the oxidative reactions with cumene peroxide radicals and catalytically decomposing cumene hydroperoxide.
Monocular tissue reconstruction via remote center motion for robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery
Authors: Li Peng , Tang Ming , Ding Ke , Wu Xiaojun , Liu Yunhui
Published: August 2021

In minimally invasive surgery, the primary surgeon requires an assistant to hold an endoscope to obtain visual information from the body cavity. However, the two-dimensional images acquired by endoscopy lack depth information. Future automatic robotic surgeries need three-dimensional information of the target area. This paper presents a method to reconstruct a 3D model of soft tissues from image sequences acquired from a robotic camera holder. In this algorithm, a sparse reconstruction module based on the SIFT and SURF features is designed, and a multilevel feature matching strategy is proposed to improve the algorithm efficiency. To recover the realistic effect of the soft-tissue model, a complete 3D reconstruction algorithm is implemented, including densification, meshing of the point cloud and texture mapping reconstruction. During the texture reconstruction stage, a mathematical model is proposed to achieve the repair of texture seams. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, we use a collaborative manipulator (AUBO i5) with a mounted camera to mimic an assistant surgeon holding an endoscope. To satisfy a pivotal constraint imposed by the remote center of motion (RCM), a kinematic algorithm of the manipulator is implemented, and the primary surgeon is provided with a voice control interface to control the directions of the camera with. We conducted an experiment to show a 3D reconstruction of soft tissue by the proposed method and the manipulator, which indicates that the manipulator works as a robotic assistant which can hold a camera to provide abundant information in the surgery.
High Capacity and Fast Kinetics of Potassium-Ion Batteries Boosted by Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbon Spheres
Authors: Zheng Jiefeng , Wu Yuanji , Tong Yong , Liu Xi , Sun Yingjuan , Li Hongyan , Niu Li
Published: August 2021

In view of rich potassium resources and their working potential, potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are deemed as next generation rechargeable batteries. Owing to carbon materials with the preponderance of durability and economic price, they are widely employed in PIBs anode materials. Currently, porosity design and heteroatom doping as efficacious improvement strategies have been applied to the structural design of carbon materials to improve their electrochemical performances. Herein, nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon spheres (MCS) are synthesized by a facile hard template method. The MCS demonstrate larger interlayer spacing in a short range, high specific surface area, abundant mesoporous structures and active sites, enhancing K-ion migration and diffusion. Furthermore, we screen out the pyrolysis temperature of 900 °C and the pore diameter of 7 nm as optimized conditions for MCS to improve performances. In detail, the optimized MCS-7-900 electrode achieves high rate capacity (107.9 mAh g−1 at 5000 mA g−1) and stably brings about 3600 cycles at 1000 mA g−1. According to electrochemical kinetic analysis, the capacitive-controlled effects play dominant roles in total storage mechanism. Additionally, the full-cell equipped MCS-7-900 as anode is successfully constructed to evaluate the practicality of MCS.
Neural Style Transfer as Data Augmentation for Improving COVID-19 Diagnosis Classification
Authors: Hernandez-Cruz Netzahualcoyotl , Cato David , Favela Jesus
Published: August 2021

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has accounted for millions of causalities. While it affects not only individuals but also our collective healthcare and economic systems, testing is insufficient and costly hampering efforts to deal with the pandemic. Chest X-rays are routine radiographic imaging tests that are used for the diagnosis of respiratory conditions such as pneumonia and COVID-19. Convolutional neural networks have shown promise to be effective at classifying X-rays for assisting diagnosis of conditions; however, achieving robust performance demanded in most modern medical applications typically requires a large number of samples. While there exist datasets containing thousands of X-ray images of patients with healthy and pneumonia diagnoses, because COVID-19 is such a recent phenomenon, there are relatively few confirmed COVID-19 positive chest X-rays openly available to the research community. In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of cycle-generative adversarial network, commonly used for neural style transfer, as a way to augment COVID-19 negative X-ray images to look like COVID-19 positive images for increasing the number of COVID-19 positive training samples. The statistical results show an increase in the mean macro f1-score over 21% on a one-tailed t score = 2.68 and p value = 0.01 to accept our alternative hypothesis for an $$\alpha = 0.05$$

α
=
0.05

. We conclude that this approach, when used in conjunction with standard transfer learning techniques, is effective at improving the performance of COVID-19 classifiers for a variety of common convolutional neural networks.
The Kurdish Women's Freedom Movement
Authors: Käser Isabel
Published: August 2021

Amidst ongoing wars and insecurities, female fighters, politicians and activists of the Kurdish Freedom Movement are building a new political system that centres gender equality. Since the Rojava Revolution, the international focus has been especially on female fighters, a gaze that has often been essentialising and objectifying, brushing over a much more complex history of violence and resistance. Going beyond Orientalist tropes of the female freedom fighter, and the movement's own narrative of the 'free woman', Isabel Käser looks at personal trajectories and everyday processes of becoming a militant in this movement. Based on in-depth ethnographic research in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, with women politicians, martyr mothers and female fighters, she looks at how norms around gender and sexuality have been rewritten and how new meanings and practices have been assigned to women in the quest for Kurdish self-determination. Her book complicates prevailing notions of gender and war and creates a more nuanced understanding of the everyday embodied epistemologies of violence, conflict and resistance.
Understanding Insurgency
Authors: O'Connor Francis
Published: August 2021

No insurgent movement can survive without some degree of popular support, but what does it mean to support an armed group? Focusing on the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has come to global attention in recent years for its efforts in resisting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but has been present and active in the region for much longer, Francis O'Connor explores the first three decades of the PKK's insurgency in Turkey. Looking at how the relationship between armed groups and their supporters should be conceptually understood, how this relationship varies spatially and what role violence has in their relationship, he draws on Civil War, Social Movements and Rebel Governance literatures to outline how the PKK survived a military coup in 1980 and slowly won popular support through incipient forms of rebel governance, the targeted use of violence and a nuanced projection of its ideology and objectives. In doing so, it provides an historical narrative to an organisation which has managed to successfully resist NATO's second largest army with limited weapons for decades and has become a key player of Kurdish rights in the wider region.
Unspoken SPS-Plus and SPS-Minus Aspirations: Biotechnologies in EU and US Trade Agreements
Authors: FONTANELLI Filippo
Published: August 2021

In the World Trade Organization (WTO), the US approach to science-based risks and trade restrictions prevailed over that of the European Union (EU). The EU, dissatisfied with the margin of action available when “relevant scientific evidence is insufficient”, largely kept intact its internal practice on marketing and importing genetically modified (GM) crops and GM-containing products. The goal of this article is to ascertain whether these regulatory preferences of the US and the EU translate into their post-Biotech external trade efforts. US and EU preferential trade agreements are scanned for rules on trade in biotechnology goods or the use of precautionary elements in regulation. It transpires that neither bloc systematically tries (or manages) to bend trade agreements to accommodate its defensive or offensive trade interests in this field. Among the possible reasons for this apparent inertia are the US confidence in the WTO baseline and the EU preference for a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to its trade-restrictive policy in this area.
Effect of fish paste products, fish balls ‘tsumire’, intake in Sprague–Dawley rats
Authors: Kadokura Kazunari , Tomita Tsuyoshi , Suruga Kohei
Published: August 2021

The fish paste product, fish balls ‘tsumire’, is a traditional type of Japanese food made from minced fish as well as imitation crab, kamaboko and hanpen. Although tsumire is known as a high-protein and low-fat food, there is a lack of scientific evidence on its health benefits. Hence, we aimed to investigate the effects of tsumire intake on organ weight and biomarker levels in Sprague–Dawley rats for 84 d as a preliminary study. Six-week-old male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into two groups: group I, fed normal diets, and group II, fed normal diets with 5 % dried tsumire. Throughout the administration period, we monitored their body weight and food intake; at the end of this period, we measured their organ weight and analysed their blood biochemistry. No significant differences were observed with respect to body weight, food intake, organ weight and many biochemical parameters between the two groups. It was found that inorganic phosphorus and glucose levels were higher in group II rats than in group I rats. On the other hand, sodium, calcium, amylase and cholinesterase levels were significantly lower in group II than in group I. Interestingly, we found that the levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase and leucine aminopeptidase in group II were significantly lower than in group I, and that other liver function parameters of group II tended to be lower than in group I. In conclusion, we consider that the Japanese traditional food, ‘tsumire,’ may be effective as a functional food for human health management worldwide.
THE RUDIN–KEISLER ORDERING OF P-POINTS UNDER 𝔟 = 𝔠
Authors: STAROSOLSKI ANDRZEJ
Published: August 2021

M. E. Rudin (1971) proved, under CH, that for each P-point p there exists a P-point q strictly RK-greater than p. This result was proved under
${\mathfrak {p}= \mathfrak {c}}$
by A. Blass (1973), who also showed that each RK-increasing
$ \omega $
-sequence of P-points is upper bounded by a P-point, and that there is an order embedding of the real line into the class of P-points with respect to the RK-ordering. In this paper, the results cited above are proved under the (weaker) assumption that
$\mathfrak { b}=\mathfrak {c}$
. A. Blass asked in 1973 which ordinals can be embedded in the set of P-points, and pointed out that such an ordinal cannot be greater than
$ \mathfrak {c}^{+}$
. In this paper it is proved, under
$\mathfrak {b}=\mathfrak {c}$
, that for each ordinal
$\alpha < \mathfrak {c}^{+}$
, there is an order embedding of
$ \alpha $
into P-points. It is also proved, under
$\mathfrak {b}=\mathfrak {c}$
, that there is an embedding of the long line into P-points.
IN INNER MODELS WITH WOODIN CARDINALS
Authors: MÜLLER SANDRA , SARGSYAN GRIGOR
Published: August 2021

We analyze the hereditarily ordinal definable sets
$\operatorname {HOD} $
in
$M_n(x)[g]$
for a Turing cone of reals x, where
$M_n(x)$
is the canonical inner model with n Woodin cardinals build over x and g is generic over
$M_n(x)$
for the Lévy collapse up to its bottom inaccessible cardinal. We prove that assuming
$\boldsymbol \Pi ^1_{n+2}$
-determinacy, for a Turing cone of reals x,
$\operatorname {HOD} ^{M_n(x)[g]} = M_n(\mathcal {M}_{\infty } | \kappa _{\infty }, \Lambda ),$
where
$\mathcal {M}_{\infty }$
is a direct limit of iterates of
$M_{n+1}$
,
$\delta _{\infty }$
is the least Woodin cardinal in
$\mathcal {M}_{\infty }$
,
$\kappa _{\infty }$
is the least inaccessible cardinal in
$\mathcal {M}_{\infty }$
above
$\delta _{\infty }$
, and
$\Lambda $
is a partial iteration strategy for
$\mathcal {M}_{\infty }$
. It will also be shown that under the same hypothesis
$\operatorname {HOD}^{M_n(x)[g]} $
satisfies
$\operatorname {GCH} $
.
ON -HOMOGENEOUS, BUT NOT -TRANSITIVE PERMUTATION GROUPS
Authors: SHELAH SAHARON , SOUKUP LAJOS
Published: August 2021

A permutation group G on a set A is
${\kappa }$
-homogeneous iff for all
$X,Y\in \bigl [ {A} \bigr ]^ {\kappa } $
with
$|A\setminus X|=|A\setminus Y|=|A|$
there is a
$g\in G$
with
$g[X]=Y$
. G is
${\kappa }$
-transitive iff for any injective function f with
$\operatorname {dom}(f)\cup \operatorname {ran}(f)\in \bigl [ {A} \bigr ]^ {\le {\kappa }} $
and
$|A\setminus \operatorname {dom}(f)|=|A\setminus \operatorname {ran}(f)|=|A|$
there is a
$g\in G$
with
$f\subset g$
.

Giving a partial answer to a question of P. M. Neumann [6] we show that there is an
${\omega }$
-homogeneous but not
${\omega }$
-transitive permutation group on a cardinal
${\lambda }$
provided

(i)

${\lambda }<{\omega }_{\omega }$
, or

(ii)

$2^{\omega }<{\lambda }$
, and
${\mu }^{\omega }={\mu }^+$
and
$\Box _{\mu }$
hold for each
${\mu }\le {\lambda }$
with
${\omega }=\operatorname {cf}({\mu })<{{\mu }}$
, or

(iii)

our model was obtained by adding
$(2^{\omega })^+$
many Cohen generic reals to some ground model.

For
${\kappa }>{\omega }$
we give a method to construct large
${\kappa }$
-homogeneous, but not
${\kappa }$
-transitive permutation groups. Using this method we show that there exist
${\kappa }^+$
-homogeneous, but not
${\kappa }^+$
-transitive permutation groups on
${\kappa }^{+n}$
for each infinite cardinal
${\kappa }$
and natural number
$n\ge 1$
provided
$V=L$
.
Children and adolescents with ADHD followed up to adulthood: a systematic review of long-term outcomes
Authors: Di Lorenzo Rosaria , Balducci Jessica , Poppi Chiara , Arcolin Elisa , Cutino Anna , Ferri Paola , D’Amico Roberto , Filippini Tommaso
Published: August 2021

The objective is to highlight the clinical and social outcomes among adults who suffered from Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in their childhood/adolescence. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus databases were searched for prospective studies published during the last 5 years addressing patients with ADHD in childhood/adolescence followed-up to adulthood. We also included studies published before 2015 reported in other reviews with similar outcomes. Thousand four-hundred and eighty-five studies were identified, but only 39 were included for qualitative analysis and 27 for quantitative analysis. Overall, we found that ADHD persisted into adulthood with a mean rate of 43% and was mainly associated with both substance/alcohol use disorders and antisocial behavior and, less frequently, with anxiety and depressive disorders. The prevalence of persistent ADHD in adulthood reported by studies published after 2011 (55%) was higher than that reported by studies published previously from 1985 to 2011 (34%), suggesting a greater focus on ADHD in recent years. Our results highlight that ADHD can be considered not only a neurodevelopmental disorder, but also a persistent and complex condition, with detrimental consequences for quality of life in adulthood.
The Arbitrage Lobby: Theory and Evidence on Dual Exchange Rates
Authors: Gulotty Robert , Kronick Dorothy
Published: August 2021

Foundational theories of trade politics emphasize a conflict between consumer welfare and protectionist lobbies. But these theories ignore other powerful lobbies that also shape trade policy. We propose a theory of trade distortion arising from conflict between consumer welfare and importer lobbies. We estimate the key parameter of the model—the government's weight on welfare—using original data from Venezuela, where Hugo Chávez used an exchange-rate subsidy to underwrite hundreds of billions of dollars of imports. Whereas estimates from traditional models would make Chávez look like a welfare maximizer, our results indicate that he implemented distortionary commercial policy to the benefit of special interests. Our analysis underscores the importance of tailoring workhorse models to account for differences in interest group configuration. The politics of trade policy is not reducible to the politics of protectionism.
Pro-arrhythmogenic effects of Trypanosoma cruzi conditioned medium proteins in a model of bovine chromaffin cells
Authors: Baraibar A. M. , de Pascual R. , Rodriguez Angulo H. O. , Mijares A. , Hernández-Guijo J. M.
Published: August 2021

Asymptomatic sudden death is the principal cause of mortality in Chagas disease. There is little information about molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of malignant arrhythmias in Chagasic patients. Previous studies have involved Trypanosoma cruzi secretion proteins in the genesis of arrhythmias ex vivo, but the molecular mechanisms involved are still unresolved. Thus, the aim was to determine the effect of these secreted proteins on the cellular excitability throughout to test its effects on catecholamine secretion, sodium-, calcium-, and potassium-conductance and action potential (AP) firing. Conditioned medium was obtained from the co-culture of T. cruzi and Vero cells (African green monkey kidney cells) and ultra-filtered for concentrating immunogenic high molecular weight parasite proteins. Chromaffin cells were assessed with the parasite and Vero cells control medium. Parasite-secreted proteins induce catecholamine secretion in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, T. cruzi conditioned medium induced depression of both calcium conductance and calcium and voltage-dependent potassium current. Interestingly, this fact was related to the abolishment of the hyperpolarization phase of the AP produced by the parasite medium. Taken together, these results suggest that T. cruzi proteins may be involved in the genesis of pro-arrhythmic conditions that could influence the appearance of malignant arrhythmias in Chagasic patients.
1994 Noma Award Acceptance Speech
Authors: Zeleza Paul Tiyambe
Published: August 2021

Your Excellency, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Cabinet ministers, ambassadors and high commissioners, publishers, representatives of Kodansha Ltd., distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It fills me with great pleasure to be here today to receive the 1994 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Reflections on the Studying and Teaching About Africa in America
Authors: Alpers Edward A.
Published: August 2021

Is there an African Studies establishment in the United States? Of course there is. The academic study of Africa has mushroomed since the end of the Second World War as federal dollars were invested in graduate training programs so that the United States would be able to cope with the challenges posed by the coming to independence of former colonial territories in Africa from 1956 onward. Most of this money went to major research universities. Accordingly, the training in African Studies that evolved at these centers was rooted in the historical development of western academic disciplines, the history of race and power in America, and hegemonic control over the discourse on Africa in America.
Is Africa a Postmodern Invention?
Authors: Parpart Jane L.
Published: August 2021

The utility of postmodern thinking to the study of Africa continues to be a matter of hot debate. Some authors see postmodernism, particularly colonial discourse analysis, as a threat to well established historical methods for studying African societies. Others draw on postmodern insights while warning of its shortcomings, especially the lack of attention to political and economic structures. This brief discussion cannot fully explore such a complicated subject; rather it is intended as a personal view on some of the key issues at hand.
Africa as a Second Class Citizen: When Will Things Finally Fall Apart?
Authors: Iyer Lisa H.
Published: August 2021

Three years ago I presented a paper on the canonical status of African literature at a conference on canonicity sponsored by Binghamton University. As the only paper on African literature at the conference, my paper, like an orphan, was placed in the care of a panel on German literature. Although my paper was the last to be given in the last session on the last day of the conference, its reading was well attended and enthusiastically received by colleagues, all non-Africanists, who have a real interest in learning and disseminating more information about a body of literature outside the scope of their own research.
The Impact of the Women's Decade on Policies, Programs and Empowerment of Women in Kenya
Authors: Nzomo Maria
Published: August 2021

The 1985 Nairobi Conference to close the United Nations decade dedicated to women of the world caught Kenyan women (and men) by storm. Indeed, the majority of Kenyan women did not know, until the eve of this conference, that there had been an entire decade dedicated to them, and committed to the achievement of Equality, Development, and Peace. However, the Kenyan policy makers and the enlightened among Kenyan women, especially leaders of women's organizations, were not only fully aware of the decade's developments, but had in various ways participated and contributed to it. On its part, the Kenya government by the end of the decade, had adopted a Women in Development (WID) policy position and created and/or promoted national machineries to develop and coordinate programs for women.
Privatization in Africa: Domestic Origins, Current Status and Future Scenarios
Authors: Wilson Ernest J.
Published: August 2021

Few phenomena in recent years have sparked as much fervent support and militant opposition as “privatization.” Narrowly defined, privatization means selling state owned assets to private buyers. Its proponents insist that privatization improves micro-economic efficiency and enhances macro-economic growth. Its opponents counter that privatization is a non-starter politically and impractical economically. One side tends to see privatization as a private sector panacea; the other an imperialist curse.
Academic Analysis and U.S. Policy-Making on Africa: Reflections and Conclusions
Authors: Wiley David S.
Published: August 2021

Late in the 1980s, several major U.S. private foundations concluded that the concern for Africa in the country was weak. This weakness was reflected in the faint focus on U.S. foreign policy toward Africa in all three branches of government, in the halting voice for Africa or for U.S. interests there in the non-governmental organizations (think-tanks, religious organizations, lobbies), and in the small concern for U.S. policy or for affecting it in the African studies scholarly community. Indeed, the voice for Africa in the United States was neither strong nor effective.
Humanitarian Relief in Africa 1991: A Press Briefing
Authors: Spangler Scott
Published: August 2021

The conflict in the Gulf has understandably overshadowed events in sub-Saharan Africa. But we believe the crisis overtaking many countries on that continent warrants our meeting here today.
The Efforts to Restore Intellectual Freedom in Africa
Authors: Hyden Goran
Published: August 2021

One of the most encouraging things to happen recently in Africa is the growing concern among local people with the need for respect for civil and political rights. In the forefront of this new movement are many of the continent’s intellectuals. Their agenda includes a more general call for respect of the rights of all citizens but also a particularly strong plea for greater academic freedom. For example, declarations in support of academic freedom were passed by the Association of University Teachers in Zimbabwe 1989 and by delegates from autonomous staff associations in six institutions of higher learning in Tanzania in May 1990. Both these initiatives came about as a result of government decisions to abrogate the autonomy of the universities as laid down in the acts once adopted by national law-makers to guide the operations of these institutions.
Political Change and Political Research in Africa; Agenda for the 1990s
Authors: Keller Edmond J.
Published: August 2021

The decade between 1963 and 1973 was heralded by some observers as liberal democracy’s darkest hour in many parts of the non-Western world. During this period seven Latin American democracies collapsed; one African country after the other rejected multi-party liberal democracy in favor of either single-party or military regimes; Soviet hegemony prevailed and seemed to be growing stronger in communist Eastern Europe and parts of the Third World; and pockets of authoritarianism could even be found in Southern Europe (e. g., Spain, Portugal, Greece). Such developments led scholars to concentrate their research efforts on trying to understand why democracy had failed to either take hold or to survive in those places where it had been successfully introduced.
The ECOMOG Initiative in Liberia: A Liberian Perspective
Authors: Tarr S. Byron
Published: August 2021

This is a Liberian perspective on the unique initiative by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to resolve the Liberian conflict by organizing and deploying a Peace Monitoring Group in Liberia. It considers whether ECOWAS’ initiative can become a self-reliant security system that can end a civil war and institutionalize deterrence to subregional inter-state and internal conflicts. Can this self-generated, West African initiative set the stage for democratization? Is the initiative the start of an inter-African cooperative security system? Is the model of Nigerian leadership a harbinger of a regional hegemony in the making? Is the modest role of the USA constructive in resolving the conflict, in light of the fact that Liberia is a country with which the USA has had an historic relationship?
Russian Newspaper Coverage of Somalia and the Former Yugoslavia
Authors: Eribo Festus
Published: August 2021

One of the results of the New World Information and Communication Order debate was the invigoration of international communication research on images and coverage of nations in the world media. Specifically, the images of Africa outside the continent became a major research question in Western communication scholarship. The results of these studies contend that several variables such as 1) event characteristics, including deviance, interest, and timeliness; and 2) country characteristics, including economic, political, and cultural significance, proximity and national security, appear to affect the ways one nation is covered by the media of another nation.
Acts of Human Kindness: Tutsi, Hutu and the Genocide
Authors: Jefremovas Villia
Published: August 2021

Most press reports would have us believe that the genocide in Rwanda was the result of a “centuries-old” ethnic/tribal hatred. There is no denying that mass murder and genocide took place in Rwanda. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people died in the most appalling way. Those killed were from all ethnic groups, Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa; but the vast majority of those killed were Tutsi. However, it is important to understand the process by which this took place: we must stop and ask if this genocide was inevitable, if it was universal, and if it was the result of ancient irreconcilable hatreds.

The reference to tribal warfare, or even ethnic conflict, implies that there are (at least) two sides fighting, and that all members of society are caught up in the killings. But in this case, the great preponderance of deaths resulted not from “conflict” but from murder.
An Open Letter to the President and Board of Directors of the Asa Concerning the Asa Response to the Genocide in Rwanda
Authors: Depelchin Jacques
Published: August 2021

When I received the July/September issue of ASA News, I had just returned from a visit to Zaire (June/July 1994), and was struggling against the current that kept me from finding the best ways to bear witness to what had happened in Burundi and Rwanda. Everything around me conspired to draw me back into the business as usual mode. With such preoccupations in my mind, my first walk through a local mall almost made me sick. I am slowly learning to understand that in the Age of the Ephemeral, attempting to interface with Memory can be as lethal as fantasizing that one could get, unscathed, through a society which puts a premium on conformity.
Transforming Higher Education in South Africa: A New Approach to Governance
Authors: Moja Teboho , Cloete Nico
Published: August 2021

A recent review of South African universities concluded that higher education institutions have “in place considerable facilities and a substantial capacity to respond to the reshaping of post-apartheid education. However, in general the historically white institutions (and a number of black institutions) have little moral and political legitimacy. In contrast, the majority of black institutions (and a few white institutions) have little or no academic credibility. Overall, the ‘system’ is seen as one that perpetuates inequality, is hugely wasteful and is not serving the human resource needs of the country. These problems have led to numerous demands for reforms in order to redress inequalities, and to ensure greater relevance, accountability and democracy.”
The Crisis in Higher Education in Africa
Authors: Atteh Samuel O.
Published: August 2021

Africa is experiencing an educational crisis of unprecedented proportions in higher education. Having been hailed in the 1960s as agent of modernization, social mobilization, and economic growth, most African universities are now tumbling down under the pressures of diminishing financial resources. From all indications, Africa is lagging behind other developing regions in terms of public expenditures particularly on education, availability of educational facilities, equal access to education, adequate pools of qualified teachers, and sufficient numbers of professionals and skilled workers. Pertinent data show that most African governments in the 1960s and 1970s made comparable progressive accomplishments in higher education. However, these accomplishments steadily disappeared in the 1980s. What went wrong in the 1980s? Why is higher education now such a convenient target for African leaders/governments, when pressured to trim their overextended public sector? To what extent is the lack of multiparty democracies affecting the deteriorating state of higher education in Africa? Is the declining importance attached to education in sub-Saharan Africa a reflection of the lack of education among Africa’s tyrannical rulers, hence the low appreciation of education? What role did the foreign financial institutions play in the African educational system? How can we turn the educational crisis around? These questions not only address African educational issues but also help us to explain the scope of this crisis. In a comparative analysis, this study describes the main African higher educational problems, identifies the root causes of the problems, and finally examines the implications for the twenty-first century.
Universities and Political Protest in Africa: The Case of Côte D’Ivoire
Authors: Daddieh Cyril Kofie
Published: August 2021

The remarkable yet untold story of the straggles to democratize African political systems is that they owe much of their recent success to the pivotal role played by university student groups and faculty associations as animateurs of protest demonstrations, debates about issues deemed taboo by the state, and as organizers of militant campus movements. At a time when most associational groups were banned or rendered politically impotent by being incorporated into existing state structures in order for them to serve state interests, secondary and university student groups and faculties remained virtually the only sources of pressure and protest against authoritarian regimes on the continent. Thus, from Dakar to Nairobi, from Addis Ababa to Harare, student movements and demonstrations, fought pitched battles with state security personnel and stimulated civilian opposition movements.
Higher Education in Nigeria: Decades of Development and Decline
Authors: Eribo Festus
Published: August 2021

On October 1, 1960, the British colonialists departed Nigeria, leaving behind one lonely university campus at Ibadan which was established in 1948 as an affiliate of the University of London and a prototype of British educational philosophy for the colonies. Thirty-five years into the post-colonial era, Nigerians established 40 new universities, 69 polytechnics, colleges of technology and of education. Twenty of the universities and 17 polytechnics are owned by the federal government while the state governments control the others. Nigerian universities are largely directed by Nigerian faculty and staff. The student enrollment in the universities is on the increase, reaching an estimated 400,000 Nigerian students and a handful of African and non-African students.
Questioning the Diaspora: Hegemony, Black Intellectuals and Doing International History from Below
Authors: Brock Lisa
Published: August 2021

The recent debates among scholars on hegemony and race in African Studies are very exciting. Realities that African-American intellectuals know quite well—that there was a Black tradition of scholarship on Africa in the Americas long before 1948 and that peoples of African descent have been marginalized within the African Studies establishment—are finally getting a much needed airing. Although some of the opinions, such as those expressed by Phillip Curtin in theChronicleare difficult to swallow and no doubt the cause of great unease, many of us are not surprised and are in fact elated. Silences on issues of racism are never golden, only a resolve to expose and fight them are.
“Homosexuality” in Africa: Issues and Debates
Authors: Amory Deborah P.
Published: August 2021

This article explores the recent emergence of a new subfield within African Studies: not just the study of sexuality in African contexts, but the study of “homosexuality,” or same-sex erotics and identities. I will outline some of the events that herald this new era of African Studies, and review some of the current research topics and debates. In the end, I hope to convince readers that this research deserves the support of all activist scholars within African Studies.
Dr. Kadi Sesay: Sierra Leone Feminist and Advocate for Democracy
Authors: Day Lynda R.
Published: August 2021

Two hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers of America’s world-renowned democracy were wealthy, well-educated white males dedicated to throwing off the yoke of British oppression. In Sierra Leone since 1995, the person most associated with democracy is a petite, articulate, beautiful, in-your-face, dynamo of a woman named Dr. Kadi Sesay. Though Dr. Sesay’s job arises from a national emphasis on civic education for the masses, her work bears special scrutiny for its success in concretizing a feminist vision of female power articulated within the context of empowerment for all the country’s citizens.
Mines, Money, and the Problem of State-Building in Congo
Authors: Reno William S.K.
Published: August 2021

“They call it a country. In fact it is just a Zaire-shaped hole in the middle of Africa,” wroteThe Economistin 1995. Well before then, Erwin Blumenthal, who visited Zaire on behalf of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assess prospects for reform, warned that, despite promises from President Mobutu (1965-97) that loans would be repaid, “there is no—I repeat no—chance on the horizon that Zaire’s many creditors will recover their money.’ Meanwhile, Mobutu did not use loans to build state bureaucracies or provide services; he actively discouraged them. Even by official accounts, the modest spending of 10 percent of Zaire’s budget on education and health services in 1982 fell to zero a decade later.
Dreams, Battles, and the Rout of the Elite in Congo-Kinshasa: The Mourning of an Imagined Democracy
Authors: Pongo Martin Kalulambi
Published: August 2021

On May 17, 1997, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (AFDL), led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, took power in Kinshasa after a seven-month liberation war. According to the opinion of numerous observers, Kabila’s rebellion would be a saving act; it would distance the Congo from the specter of civil war toward which it was fatally headed. Ethnic opposition to the Mobutu regime was stirring. The rebellion would save the country from the claws of cynical politicians and from the political chasm they dug with the sovereign national conference, which created nonfunctional political institutions. Ten months after the new leaders were installed at Kinshasa, it is still too soon to evaluate their efforts to put the country back on its feet. But many praiseworthy initiatives, of which the Bulletin of the Congolese Press Agency daily informs us, touch all aspects of national life.
The “Friends of the Congo” and the Kabila System
Authors: Willame Jean-Claude
Published: August 2021

After at least five years of international isolation— almost 10 years in Belgium’s case—the Congo (formerly Zaire) is once again “visitable.” The “friends of the Congo” conference sponsored by the World Bank last December 3-4 sanctioned the beginning of normalization. Those attending were cautious since the meeting did not take place at the ministerial level and since the only help considered urgent concerned currency, transportation, and health. The Congolese government obtained a total of $120 million, the majority from the European Union (E.U.). This represents only about 10 percent of Kinshasa’s assessed reconstruction needs. For the rest, there will be another meeting in six months.
The Clinton Administration and Africa: White House Involvement and the Foreign Affairs Bureaucracies
Authors: Clark John F.
Published: August 2021

Both continuity and change capture the evolving role of the Clinton White House in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. Elements of continuity are reflected in a familiar pattern of relationships between the White House and the principal foreign policy bureaucracies, most notably the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and more recently the U.S. Department of Commerce. As cogently argued in Peter J. Schraeder’s analysis of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa during the Cold War era, the White House has tended to take charge of U.S. African policies only in those relatively rare situations perceived as crises by the president and his closest advisors. In other, more routine situations—the hallmark of the myriad of U.S. African relations—the main foreign policy bureaucracies have been at the forefront of policy formulation, and “bureaucratic dominance” of the policymaking process has prevailed. Much the same pattern is visible in the Clinton administration, with the exception of President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998. Until that time, events in Somalia in 1993 served as the only true African crisis of the administration that was capable of focusing the ongoing attention of President Clinton and his closest advisors. Given that the United States is now disengaged from most African crises, Africa has remained a “backwater” for the White House and the wider foreign policymaking establishment.
The Clinton Administration and Africa: Perspective of the Congressional Black Caucus and TransAfrica
Authors: Leanne Shelly
Published: August 2021

Surprising to some, African American leaders have expressed a relatively high level of dissatisfaction with the Clinton administration’s policies toward Africa both before and after President Clinton’s historic journey to the African continent in 1998. Well-publicized protests against the administration’s Nigerian policy were supported by Trans-Africa, many members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and other organizations with large numbers of African American supporters, such as the Washington Office on Africa (WOA). Likewise, both TransAfrica and many members of the CBC were sufficiently unhappy with Clinton’s approach that they boycotted the 1994 White House Conference on Africa. More recently, the CBC refused to take an official stance on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, and over 30 percent of its members voted against the act in the House of Representatives. Given the contrast between an African policy perceived popularly as innovative and supportive of Africa, and the fairly high level of dissension and disapproval among African American leaders toward that policy, it is particularly worth exploring African American perspectives about Clinton’s African policies.
The Clinton Administration and Africa: Private Corporate Dimension
Authors: Reno William
Published: August 2021

Prior to the start of the colonial era in Africa in the late 19th century, European states conducted relations with African rulers through a variety of means. Formal diplomatic exchanges characterized relations with polities that Europeans recognized as states, between European diplomats and officials of the Congo Kingdom of present-day Angola, Ethiopia, and Liberia, for example. Other African authorities occupied intermediate positions in Europeans’ views of international relations, either because these authorities ruled very small territories, defended no fixed borders, or appeared to outside eyes to be more akin to commercial entrepreneurs than rulers of states. Relations between Europe and these authorities left much more room for proxies and ancillary groups. Missionaries, explorers, and chartered companies commonly became proxies through which strong states in Europe pursued their relations with these African authorities. So too now, stronger states in global society increasingly contract out to private actors their relations toward Africa’s weakest states. Especially in the United States, but also in Great Britain and South Africa, officials show a growing propensity to use foreign firms, including military service companies, as proxies to exercise influence in small, very poor countries where strategic and economic interests are limited. This privatized foreign policy affects the worst-off parts of Africa—states like Angola, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone—where formal state institutions have collapsed, often amidst long-term warfare and disorder.
The West and Elections in Nigeria
Authors: Sesay Amadu , Ukeje Charles
Published: August 2021

The end of the cold war has made democratization, and its barest essential component elections, imperative for all nondemocratic forms of government. This is to be expected, given the dismal failure of the socialist alternative even in the first socialist country, the former Soviet Union. The United States, which is not only the foremost democracy in the world but also the only superpower, has been in the vanguard of democracy salesmanship. Africa, the continent with the least democratic space, has not been left out, as witnessed by President Bill Clinton’s unprecedented tour of the continent in March 1998.

Understandably, Nigeria, arguably the most important country in Africa, was left out of the tour, since it was then under the obnoxious, undemocratic, and oppressive military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.
Nigeria’s Economy: Opportunity and Challenge
Authors: Lewis Peter
Published: August 2021

Among the more pressing and enigmatic challenges for Nigeria’s new civilian regime is the reconstruction of the nation’s benighted economy. The long-standing distortions of the petroleum-led economy have been exacerbated by more than a decade of misrule, international isolation, and economic decline. The current political transition offers Nigeria an opportunity to rejoin the global economy while establishing new foundations for economic revival. The legacy of decay from recent dictatorships weighs heavily on this process. The burdens of political repression and unaccountable governance have been compounded by stagnant economic performance, deepening popular immiseration, widening inequalities, and spiraling corruption.