bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Economic Recovery in the Eastern States of Nigeria
Authors: Ukpong I. I.
Published: August 2021

Nigeria’s attainment of independence on 1 October 1960 was greeted with world-wide acclaim in the expectation that this new nation would eventually emerge as a model of unity and strength in a developing continent that was bristling with internal strife and local partisanship.

The events that followed proved this expectation to have been based on weak axioms. The political division of the country-first into three, and later into four regions—resulted in political, economic and social imbalances. Not only did such a structure favor the growth of tribalism with its attendant evils; it aided the emergence of a class sytem of “haves,” “have-mores,” “have-littles,” and “have-nots.”
Testimony on Mozambique
Authors: Bailey Norman A.
Published: August 2021

Mozambique is a territory of approximately 300,000 square miles, bounded on the East entirely by the Indian Ocean, on the North by Tanzania and on the West and South by Malawi, Zambia, Rhodesia, Swaziland and the Republic of South Africa. Of the total population of ±7,000,000, there are perhaps 80,000-90,000 Portuguese left, 35,000 mulattoes, and 25,000 East Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese. Of the Black population, the largest ethnic groups are the Makua-Lomwe, perhaps 2,500,000 in the Center-North, the Shona, 1,600,000 strong in the Center, and the Thonga, about 1,300,000 in the South. The population is divided religiously between the Moslems North of the Zambezi River and the Christian or Pagan South. Mozambique, unlike Angola, is still overwhelmingly rural and tribal, and knowledge of the Portuguese language is not widespread outside the urban centers. Additionally, the Portuguese population of the territory, in contrast to Angola, has always been predominantly made up of either peasants or functionaries of the government or of Metropolitan Corporations. Thousands of these have left in the past year. In any case, the entrepreneurial spirit was largely lacking.
Panel on Contemporary South African Poetry
Authors: Serote Mongane Wally , Mtshali Oswald , Egudu Romanus , Ndu Pol
Published: August 2021

The only was I can describe black South African writing is to say it’s a very tragic thing in its own way because of what is happening in South Africa. The writing seems to have no continuity; usually when we talk about black South African writing, we start around the sixties, but I think it started long before then. We have people writing in Setswana, Sevenda, Shangaan, Xhosa, and many other indigenous languages, and I’m sure that up to now we still aren’t fully aware of the wealth of literature written in those languages.

When I started writing, it was as if there had never been writers before in my country. By the time I learned to write, many people—Zeke, Kgositsile, Mazisi Kunene, Dennis Brutus—had left the country and were living in exile.
Panel on Literature and Commitment in South Africa
Authors: Kgositsile Keorapetse , Brutus Dennis , Achebe Chinua , Mazrui Ali A.
Published: August 2021

I would like to start talking by reading. Yesterday on this campus, the campus of the University of Texas, as incongruous as that might seem, we had a Sharpeville rally. Some people that spoke made a lot of sense; I suppose some people that came also, perhaps, needed to hear what some of those people said. Among those who spoke was a brother I respect highly—or I should say, comrade, because brother contains no commitment—Cecil Abrahams. And this poem is called “For Cecil Abrahams.” It starts out with an epigram from David Diop: “With you I have refound the memory of my blood/ and necklaces of laughter around my days.”
Response
Authors: Lobban Richard
Published: August 2021

I would like to take the liberty of responding to a “statement” which appeared at the end of Issue, number 4 [Winter 1975] which was recently sent to the ASA membership. Since the authors have often sought to keep “politics” out of the Association I was rather surprised to see them taken by a “matter of conscience” which is perhaps one of the most politically charged issues of the day. In any case I was annoyed with the inference that the fight against colonialism, racism, apartheid, and fascism was a “partisan urge” while attributing only the noblest sentiments to their “statement”.

It was particularly ironic for the authors to note that they will withdraw their “support” from nationalist organizations and governments which identify Zionism as a form of racism since they stood against a resolution raised and passed in the 1973 ASA meetings calling upon the United States government to recognize the Republic of Guinea Bissau.
Structural Adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa: The World Bank’s Perspective
Authors: Jaycox Edward V.K.
Published: August 2021

This is an important time for Sub-Saharan Africa. First and foremost, because over half the region is actively engaged in wide-ranging programs of economic reform or structural adjustment. Second, because the donor community is in the process of deciding how these African efforts will be supported over the next several years. Lomé IV, (Europe’s major funding mechanism for Africa), its volume and how it is allocated, is a critical part of that process. So too are the current negotiations on the Ninth Replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA).
Of Water Systems and Grain Mills: Observations of Felt Needs in Western Tanzania
Authors: Waters Tony
Published: August 2021

I would like to share an anomaly I observed in Kigoma Region of Tanzania. It is an anomaly because of its incompatibility with many of the decision-making models implicitly used to assess development aid programs. Such models are, of course, based primarily on the assumptions and observations made by economists, sociologists and anthropologists about the already developed countries. Implicitly, they assume a certain type of rationality which is taken for granted by both expatriate planners, and local planners trained in Western tradition. However, as I think that this example demonstrates, rational behavior in rural Third World communities may be predicated on assumptions outside the unspoken parameters of the social sciences.
F.W. De Klerk and Constitutional Change
Authors: Welsh David
Published: August 2021

South African political leaders—as either prime ministers or presidents—have an average term of office of approximately nine years. If he conforms to average, De Klerk is likely to be the dominant figure in white politics for some time, and therefore his credentials are of some significance. At 53 he is young, he comes from a background steeped in politics and he has an impressive intellectual background as an academic lawyer. In 1972 he chose to enter Parliament rather than accept the offer of a chair in law at Potchefstroom University. Having entered Parliament, his talent as a debater helped him to win his spurs quite quickly and he became Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in 1978.
Meeting Africa’s Challenge: The Story of the American Committee on Africa
Authors: Houser George M.
Published: August 2021

In the early 1950s when the American Committee on Africa was formed, American interest in and knowledge about Africa was something of a joke. There was a Tarzan mentality in the US about the continent. Few books about Africa were known even by the reading public. Gunther’s Inside Africa, when it came out in 1956, served as a reference book for years for those Americans who wanted to get a perspective on the continent. I remember listening to Chester Bowles, who served as under secretary of state briefly in the Kennedy administration, speak about his own attempt to find relevant material about Africa in a Connecticut town. He told about his visit to the town public library, where he culled through the card catalogue. To find books on the Congo he said he had to search under “B” for “Belgium.” In searching for material on Ghana (then the Gold Coast) or Nigeria, he had to look under “Great Britain.” He found books about Liberia and Ethiopia under “Miscellaneous.” Knowledge of Africa was minimal, and the continent was on the whole looked upon as an extension of Europe.
The Ford Foundation and African Studies
Authors: Sutton Francis X. , Smock David R.
Published: August 2021

Like any respectable modern organization, the Ford Foundation has computer printouts showing in fat volumes of lists and tables what it has done. Some of these compilations trace the record from the beginning of the Foundation’s national and international programs in 1950. An international interest was there from the start, because the study group that in the late forties advised the Foundation’s trustees on what they ought to do successfully urged that they should devote major attention to world problems of peace and international understanding. The first specific attention to Africa south of the Sahara came in 1954 with a half-dozen grants and a series of what were then called “foreign study and research fellowships.” Fellowships for Asian and Near Eastern studies had started earlier, in 1952, and some of them went to young scholars working on the Maghreb, Egypt, and places down as far as Sudan and Ethiopia.
Africa and the Africanist: The Challenge of a Terminal Colonial Order
Authors: Uchendu Victor C.
Published: August 2021

The academic career has its great obligations. It also has its privileges. It is a particularly gratifying honor to have the opportunity to address this distinguished audience of Africanists drawn from many nations. As your retiring President, this honor is compounded by the great privilege to address you on a subject of my own choosing—apparently simple and innocent enough until one thinks about what an intimidating experience it really is.
Confessions of a Placement Officer
Authors: Reefe Thomas Q.
Published: August 2021

The insights and advice presented here are not offered dogmatically. Rather, they are the best I can muster from my ten years’ experience with the professional job market, first as an African history job-seeker and later as a graduate placement officer. Despite the doom and gloom about employment that pervades the professional schools churning out M.A.’s and Ph.D.’s in the social sciences and humanities, it has been my experience that many advanced degree holders can still obtain meaningful and rewarding teaching careers. I have found that successful job candidates are often the people who seek work with the same drive, determination, and thoroughness with which they did their research in Africa.
Is There Life Beyond the Ivory Tower?
Authors: Reefe Thomas Q.
Published: August 2021

It is one of the misfortunes of a graduate education that students are exposed to a narrow range of career and employment models in the university environment. The most common model is that of the specialized university professor, and too many graduate students and Ph.D.’s make the very serious mistake of spending one or two recruitment years trying unsuccessfully to get work exclusively in the college and university professoriate in order to fulfill this single career goal. This perception is born out by the fact that university placement officers are suddenly deluged in August, the last month of the university recruiting year, by dozens upon dozens of unemployed Ph.D.’s in all fields asking, “What else can I do with my advanced degree?” I believe that the candidate who expands career goals and who seeks employment in the four year college and university teaching market and in other professional job markets at the same time can find well-paid and interesting career work. Multiple job searches can take forty hours a week and often have to be added to other commitments like part-time work or dissertation writing. Employment inquiries in non-academic professional fields take planning and a lot of hustle, for applications and job leads take months and months to mature just as they do in the academic market place.
Problems of Industrialization in Africa
Authors: Seidman Ann
Published: August 2021

The newly independent nations of Africa have, without exception, proclaimed their desire to industrialize in order to create increasingly productive employment opportunities and higher living standards for all their inhabitants. Historically, colonial development was oriented to producing the raw material exports required by the factories of Europe, and importing the manufactured goods those factories produced. Colonial government expenditures were devoted to building the infrastructure—railroads, roads, ports—required to facilitate the export of raw materials. Colonial policies discouraged local manufacturing to preserve African markets for goods produced in European factories. Most of the investable surpluses created by raw materials production in Africa were siphoned out of the country in the form of profits, interest, and dividends of the oligopolistic colonial firms that owned the mines and estates, and dominated the foreign trade. Little capital was left for investment in new industries. At the time of independence, less than 10% of the national product in the typical African country consisted of manufactured output—among the lowest level of industrialization in the world.
Mozambique: Dynamizing the People
Authors: Collins Carole
Published: August 2021

On June 25, 1975, following ten years of armed struggle by the Mozambican people against Portuguese colonialism, the People’s Republic of Mozambique was born. Led by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which was formed out of the merger of three nationalist organizations in 1962, the Mozambican people had seen many social, political, and economic changes come to the liberated areas in northern Mozambique long before the formal declaration of national independence. FRELIMO, even during the struggle, had begun to confront the legacy of over 400 years of Portuguese colonialism and systematic exploitation and underdevelopment of Mozambique’s human and natural resources.
“Precondition for Victory”: Women’s Liberation in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau
Authors: Urdang Stephanie
Published: August 2021

A striking aspect of the on-going revolution in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau is the insistence on the need for the liberation of women to be an explicit and integral part of that process. “Liberation of women,” reads an oft-quoted statement of Samora Machel, FRELIMO president, “is a fundamental necessity for our revolution; a guarantee of its continuity and a precondition for victory.” In a similar vein, Amilcar Cabral, assassinated leader of PAIGC, used to state firmly that their revolution could not be successful unless it ensured the full participation of women, or, “In Guinea-Bissau we say that women are fighting two colonialisms; one against the Portuguese and the other against men.”
Major Themes in Mozambigan Foreign Relations, 1975–1977
Authors: Minter William
Published: August 2021

Mozambique “switched from a pro-Chinese to a pro-Soviet stance during the Angolan civil war,” writes a commentator in the influential U.S. quarterly Foreign Policy of Fall 1977. “Mozambique said to Cool on Soviets, Turn West,” headlines a Washington Post dispatch of December 15, 1977. The Economist’s Foreign Report claims in its advertising to have been the first to describe the ideological infighting within FRELIMO and the swing to Russia. The commentators seemed to have missed Mozambique’s 1977 trade fair in September, at which the People’s Republic of China won first prize for an exhibit corresponding to Mozambique’s needs, but if they had been there one might well have seen headlines proclaiming Mozambique’s shift back to China.
Rites of Passage: African Studies Comes of Age
Authors: Liebenow J. Gus
Published: August 2021

We live in an age when baptisms, bar mitzvahs, tahara, weddings, and other significant rites of passage are being observed with decreasing frequency. Indeed, one of those solemn rites–the legal, political, and social transition into adult status at the magic age of 21–has been battered by custom, by law, and even by a constitutional amendment.
Remarks
Authors: Moose Richard M.
Published: August 2021

I am proud to be here today because I think that, for the first time in many years, the United States has an Africa policy. Some of you may not agree with all of it, but I believe we have your support for our goals.

No regional policy exists in a vacuum. Our Africa policy forms an integral, and important, part of this Administration’s global policy which includes: respect for human rights, a commitment to work for peace and world prosperity; and a striving, increasingly in a multilateral framework, for the resolution of problems in ways which can be of benefit to all.
Why U.S. Corporations should Get Out of South Africa
Authors: Seidman Ann
Published: August 2021

In evaluating the consequences of the $1.7 billion currently invested by U.S. corporations in South Africa, the issue is distinctly not whether or not the U.S. firms involved have adopted the Sullivan Principles. Those principles, purportedly designed to ensure upgrading and equal pay for blacks, are in reality little more than a smokescreen. Behind their rhetoric, U.S. transnational corporations continue to help South Africa build up its military-industry machinery to perpetuate oppression of the majority of black workers.
Socialist State Strategy and Arms in Southern Africa
Authors: Shepherd George
Published: August 2021

There are many prevailing notions and myths about the strategy and objectives of the Socialist powers and their associated socialist states in Southern Africa. A great deal of them are based upon the fears of rival powers and the propaganda of those ruling interests and minorities who suddenly now find themselves face to face, not with the in-effectual guerrilla movements they have discounted, but with real and basic international power.
Traditional Healing and Medicine in Winti: A Sociological Interpretation
Authors: Wooding Charles J.
Published: August 2021

During the period of the slave trade (1650-1830), people were brought from the whole West Coast of Africa to Suriname. The majority had a Fante-Akan (Ghana), Ewe-Fon (Togo and Benin), or a western Bantu (Congo, Zaire and Angola) background, while the Mandingo (Senegal, Sierra Leone and Liberia) formed a minor fraction (Wooding 1972: ch. II). In the course of time they amalgamated into the Afrosurinamese population group, which is subdivided into two main groups: the coastal Creoles and the inland Bushnegroes.
Human Rights in Africa: Toward the Definition of the Problem of a Double
Standard
Authors: Wiseberg Laurie S.
Published: August 2021

In August 1936, 4,069 athletes from forty-nine countries participated in the
Olympic Games in Berlin, hosted by the Nazi Fuehrer. It is true that the full
bestiality of the Third Reich was not yet manifest in 1936; the gas ovens, the
slave labor camps, and the rape of Europe were yet to come. However, by that year,
Nazi ideology had already been articulated: blacks, Jews and gypsies had been
declared sub-human; Hitler had issed his Nuremburg Laws depriving Jews of their
citizenship and civil rights; German rearmament was well underway; and the
National Socialists had brutally consolidated a racist despotism.
African Studies and the Basics
Authors: Dumor Cecilia
Published: August 2021

Educators teaching about Africa and other foreign areas cannot ignore
the demands in American education for the basics—reading, writing, and
arithmetic. These are important societal skills not merely because they
result in writing grammatical sentences, spelling correctly, multiplying,
and adding but more importantly because they play a central role, or should
play a central role, in developing critical thinking abilities. In this
respect, the critical thinking that is fostered by reading, writing, and
arithmetic is essential for any relevant study about Africa today. Both
African methods in education and content about Africa can be utilized in the
K-12 curriculum to enhance these basic skills.
African Outreach Through the Arts
Authors: Crane Louise
Published: August 2021

“No, No, No! I won’t marry that ugly little spider! He’s gross!” shouted
Christie, waving her hands dramatically. The rest of the fourth graders
listened, spellbound. Christie’s version of an “Ananse” story she had seen
another class dramatize kept the original story line, but it was clearly her
own creation, with fanciful detours here and there. Face and body totally
Involved, she was a true storyteller in the best African tradition. A few
days later Christie produced an entirely original “Ananse” story, this time
bringing the famous Ghana trickster to America to buy roller skates. Her
story, accompanied by a picture of the spider on roller skates, involves a
contest between Ananse and a kente cloth weaver. In the end, Ananse’s legs,
all eight of them, become entangled and weave a “kente cloth.” The story
ends with the traditional moral, “Sometimes when you brag about being better
than anyone else, you come out the loser!”
Faculty and Directors’ Views of Outreach
Authors: Leary F. A.
Published: August 2021

Outreach. The term was first made known to
many Africanists by the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) as a mandated
responsibility of Title VI Language and Area Studies Centers and seemed to
represent something Africanists at many institutions had probably been doing
all along anyway without any specific person or any additional funds.
Outreach in the mid-1970s seemed so appealing and harmless enough to the
directors who submitted applications for their programs to be named Title VI
centers that they deemed to insert the required 15 percent minimum budget
for outreach activities and usually a request for the hiring of an outreach
coordinator as a line item supported through soft money. By 1979 outreach
had become so integral a part of center activities and outreach coordinators
that the one African program not re-funded as a center was nevertheless able
to continue its outreach program through university funds. By late 1979,
however, some center directors were also expressing the view that outreach
risked becoming the tail that wagged the dog, while others were beginning to
realize that they might have lost control of these coordinators who were
calling themselves directors! By late 1979, too, both the personae in USOE
committed to outreach and the evaluation review sheets used by the expert
panels for center and fellowship funding had been dramatically reduced,
indicating a decline in O.E. emphasis on outreach but, in the African field,
probably also an implicit recognition of the substantial commitment and
achievements of the Africanist group.
Criteria for Evaluating Precollegiate Teaching Materials on
Africa
Authors: Schmidt Nancy
Published: August 2021

Since 1960 the United States has been emerging from a period of neglect
of Africa and unsystematic collection of information about the continent to
a period of increasing interest in Africa and an expanding collection of
information about the continent. When the total range of information about
Africa available to the average American citizen is taken into account,
however, it must be recognized that the majority is biased, impressionistic,
and inaccurate by the standards of Africans, scholars, and
Africanists.
Zimbabwe: A Peek at the Future – Reconstruction or Re-Design?
Authors: Khapoya Vincent B.
Published: August 2021

At a panel discussion on “Uganda After Amin” at the 1980 African Studies Association annual conference, Professor Ali Mazrui wondered aloud why social scientists on Africa were speaking of reconstruction in Uganda after the fall of General Idi Amin, rather than re-design. Professor Mazrui suggested that since the political system inherited by Idi Amin when he overthrew Milton Obote was faulty and unable to meet the needs of Ugandan people, and since Amin, who was kicked out of office by Ugandan guerrillas and Tanzanian soldiers early in 1977 had left the system practically in shambles, would it not be a much better idea for the new leaders (if one can consider Milton Obote in his return engagement as President of Uganda as a new leader) to think of creating a new political system rather than simply reconstructing one on the basis of the old system.
Racial Implications of U.S. Immigration Policy
Authors: Lapchick Richard , Hooks Benjamin , Williams Franklin
Published: August 2021

New York, N.Y., February 12, 1982. The Emergency Committee for African Refugees, in a joint press conference with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), announced a campaign to block the deportation of nearly 5,000 Ethiopian refugees. These Ethiopians have had their Voluntary Departure Status cancelled by the United States Department of State.
Introductory Note
Authors: Keller Edmond J.
Published: August 2021

Africanists generally agree that the United States, in the formulation and execution of its foreign policy, has historically relegated Africa to a low priority. To the extent that there has been an Africa policy at all, it has been described by scholars with such terms as a “policy of indifference,” a “non-policy,” a “policy of benign neglect.”

The election of John F. Kennedy as President of the United States coincided with the “Age of Nationalism” in Africa, an era which saw the majority of Black Africa freed from the yoke of colonialism. Kennedy made a conscious attempt to demonstrate that the United States was sympathetic to the ideals cherished most by African nationalists: national independence and self-determination; territorial integrity and security; and economic development. It was as a result of his administration’s initiative that various economic development programs (i.e., the Peace Corps, USAID) took root in Africa. However, under President Johnson, U.S.
Skeptical Notes on “Constructive Engagement”
Authors: Nolutshungu Sam C.
Published: August 2021

But do you not think that there is safety in the other course? For here also it is necessary since you have forced us to abandon considerations of justice and are persuading us to give ear to what is in your interests, for us to tell you what is to our advantage, and if our interests happen to be the same to try to persuade you.

There are many arguments advanced in support of “constructive engagement,” but the following claims are probably the most important. Apartheid is morally unacceptable. It creates difficulties in the West. It is in the interest of the West that it should come to an end with Western help. That interest coincides with that of most South Africans, except perhaps, an increasingly unrepresentative minority. Total disengagement, disinvestment, and trade boycotts are deemed impractical and unlikely, in any event, to succeed in supplanting the racist regime.
The Law Commission's Project on Weddings Law Reform
Authors: Hopkins Nicholas , Welch Elizabeth , Hussaini Sam
Published: August 2021

The Law Commission has consulted on provisional proposals for reform of the law governing how and where couples can get married in England and Wales. This article gives an overview of those proposals, with particular focus on religious weddings, including Anglican weddings. It examines proposed changes to each aspect of the process of getting married, from the preliminaries to the people required to officiate at the wedding, the permitted locations and the rules governing the content of the ceremony. The article argues that the legal status of marriage itself is highly flexible, recognising a range of unions. The proposed reforms aim to reflect the diverse range of views about the meaning of marriage, and ensure that the way in which the law recognises a legally binding wedding fits with the many different traditions according to which religious groups celebrate the formation of marriage.
HYDRAULICS AND HYDROLOGY IN A PASSAGE OF THE KITĀB AL-ĀṮĀR AL-BĀQIYA BY AL-BĪRŪNĪ
Authors: Borroni Massimiliano , Boselli Vladimiro
Published: August 2021

The authors translate and comment a digression from the Kitāb al-āṯār al-bāqiya on several hydraulic and hydrological subjects. The passage reveals al-Bīrūnī’s understanding of fluvial regimes, water physical behaviour, and of a handful of peculiar natural phenomena. Al-Bīrūnī departs from a discussion of weather forecast and seasonal fluvial regimes of the Tigris, Euphrates, Oxus, and Nile. The main concern of al-Bīrūnī is to defend the principle that water moves only downwards in absence of external forces. In doing so, the Khwarazmian scientist touches on the origin of salinity of the seas, the functioning of syphons related hydraulic machines, and relates a report of an artificial phenomenon, that he dismisses as result of faulty observations, that could be recognised as a hydraulic jump. In addition, the passage contains much relevant information on al-Bīrūnī’s understanding of the inhabitability of subequatorial regions, the possibility of the void, and the water cycle.
THE SCIENCES OF THE ANCIENTS AND THEIR DIVISIONS AQSĀM ʿULŪM AL-AWĀʾIL: A TEXT ATTRIBUTED TO AVICENNA, AN EDITION WITH A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Authors: Esmaeili Mohammad Javad
Published: August 2021

The famous philosopher and scientist Abū ʿAlī b. Sīnā (d. 428/1037) had an exceptional command of all the subjects on which he wrote. He is especially known for his many writings in logic, philosophy, and medicine. His influence was such that even in Europe, his works on physics, metaphysics and medicine in particular, were widely studied until the beginning of modern times. A keen mind, he had a full understanding of the inner structure of the Islamo-Hellenistic tradition that he perpetuated and in places helped to develop and reshape. This is not only borne out by his many writings, but in some instances also by his explicit accounts of the sciences and their divisions. This article contains an edition of one such account, of which only two copies have been identified so far. It will be argued (against Biesterfeldt) that the text in question is likely to have been written in Bukhārā when Avicenna was still in his early twenties. Moreover, it will be shown that it could very well be that the text was actually copied from his famous Al-ḥāṣil wal-maḥṣūl (Harvest reapings), a philosophical encyclopaedia in twenty volumes long since lost. The absence of algebra and a philosophical rather than a religious foundation of the sciences finally, are important clues to Avicenna's perspective on the rational sciences early in his career.
Generating community measures of food purchasing activities using store-level electronic grocery transaction records: an ecological study in Montreal, Canada
Authors: Mamiya Hiroshi , Schmidt Alexandra M , Moodie Erica EM , Ma Yu , Buckeridge David L
Published: August 2021

Objective:

Geographic measurement of diets is generally not available at areas smaller than a national or provincial (state) scale, as existing nutrition surveys cannot achieve sample sizes needed for an acceptable statistical precision for small geographic units such as city subdivisions.

Design:

Using geocoded Nielsen grocery transaction data collected from supermarket, supercentre and pharmacy chains combined with a gravity model that transforms store-level sales into area-level purchasing, we developed small-area public health indicators of food purchasing for neighbourhood districts. We generated the area-level indicators measuring per-resident purchasing quantity for soda, diet soda, flavoured (sugar-added) yogurt and plain yogurt purchasing. We then provided an illustrative public health application of these indicators as covariates for an ecological spatial regression model to estimate spatially correlated small-area risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) obtained from the public health administrative data.

Setting:

Greater Montreal, Canada in 2012.

Participants:

Neighbourhood districts (n 193).

Results:

The indicator of flavoured yogurt had a positive association with neighbourhood-level risk of T2D (1·08, 95 % credible interval (CI) 1·02, 1·14), while that of plain yogurt had a negative association (0·93, 95 % CI 0·89, 0·96). The indicator of soda had an inconclusive association, and that of diet soda was excluded due to collinearity with soda. The addition of the indicators also improved model fit of the T2D spatial regression (Watanabe–Akaike information criterion = 1765 with the indicators, 1772 without).

Conclusion:

Store-level grocery sales data can be used to reveal micro-scale geographic disparities and trends of food selections that would be masked by traditional survey-based estimation.
Birthweight-for-gestational-age z-scores are associated with early childhood cardiometabolic health in the Peri/Postnatal Epigenetic Twin Study
Authors: Ashtree Deborah N. , Silva Mihiri J. , Sun Cong , Craig Jeffrey M. , Scurrah Katrina J.
Published: August 2021

Birthweight has been consistently related to risk of cardiometabolic disorders in later life. Twins are at higher risk of low birthweight than singletons, so understanding the links between birthweight and cardiometabolic health may be particularly important for twins. However, evidence for the association of birthweight with childhood markers of cardiometabolic health in twins is currently lacking. Previous studies have often failed to appropriately adjust for gestational age or fully implement twin regression models. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the association of birthweight-for-gestational-age z-scores with childhood cardiometabolic health in twins, using within-between regression models. The Peri/Postnatal Epigenetic Twins Study is a Melbourne-based prospective cohort study of 250 twin pairs. Birthweight was recorded at delivery, and childhood anthropometric measures were taken at 18-month and 6-year follow-up visits. Associations of birthweight with markers of cardiometabolic health were assessed at the individual, between- and within-pair level using linear regression with generalised estimating equations. Birthweight-for-gestational-age z-scores were associated with height, weight and BMI at 18 months and 6 years, but not with blood pressure (twins-as-individual SBP: β = 0.15, 95% CI: −0.81, 1.11; twins-as-individual DBP: β = 0.22, 95% CI: −0.34, 0.77). We found little evidence to indicate that the within-between models improved on the twins-as-individuals models. Birthweight was associated with childhood anthropometric measures, but not blood pressure, after appropriately adjusting for gestational age. These associations were consistent across the within-between and twins-as-individuals models. After adjusting for gestational age, results from the twins-as-individuals models are consistent with singleton studies, so these results can be applied to the general population.
Nowcasting Earthquakes: Imaging the Earthquake Cycle in California With Machine Learning
Authors: Rundle John B. , Donnellan Andrea , Fox Geoffrey , Crutchfield James P. , Granat Robert
Published: August 2021

We propose a new machine learning‐based method for nowcasting earthquakes to image the time‐dependent earthquake cycle. The result is a timeseries that may correspond to the process of stress accumulation and release. The timeseries are constructed by using principal component analysis of regional seismicity. The patterns are found as eigenvectors of the cross‐correlation matrix of a collection of seismicity timeseries in a coarse grained regional spatial grid (pattern recognition via unsupervised machine learning). The eigenvalues of this matrix represent the relative importance of the various eigenpatterns. Using the eigenvectors and eigenvalues, we compute the weighted correlation timeseries of the regional seismicity. This timeseries has the property that the weighted correlation generally decreases prior to major earthquakes in the region, and increases suddenly just after a major earthquake occurs. As in a previous paper (Rundle & Donnellan, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020ea001097), we find that this method produces a nowcasting timeseries that resembles the hypothesized regional stress accumulation and release process characterizing the earthquake cycle. We then address the problem of whether the timeseries contain information regarding future large earthquakes. For this, we compute a receiver operating characteristic and determine the decision thresholds for several future time periods of interest (optimization via supervised machine learning). We find that signals can be detected that can be used to characterize the information content of the timeseries. These signals may be useful in assessing present and near‐future seismic hazards.
Cholenic acid derivative UniPR1331 impairs tumor angiogenesis via blockade of VEGF/VEGFR2 in addition to Eph/ephrin
Authors: Rusnati Marco , Paiardi Giulia , Tobia Chiara , Urbinati Chiara , Lodola Alessio , D’Ursi Pasqualina , Corrado Miriam , Castelli Riccardo , Wade Rebecca C. , Tognolini Massimiliano , Chiodelli Paola
Published: August 2021

Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting ones, is crucial for tumor growth and metastatization, and is considered a promising therapeutic target. Unfortunately, drugs directed against a specific proangiogenic growth factor or receptor turned out to be of limited benefit for oncology patients, likely due to the high biochemical redundancy of the neovascularization process. In this scenario, multitarget compounds that are able to simultaneously tackle different proangiogenic pathways are eagerly awaited. UniPR1331 is a 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-cholenic acid derivative, which is already known to inhibit Eph–ephrin interaction. Here, we employed an analysis pipeline consisting of molecular modeling and simulation, surface plasmon resonance spectrometry, biochemical assays, and endothelial cell models to demonstrate that UniPR1331 directly interacts with the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) too. The binding of UniPR1331 to VEGFR2 prevents its interaction with the natural ligand vascular endothelial growth factor and subsequent autophosphorylation, signal transduction, and in vitro proangiogenic activation of endothelial cells. In vivo, UniPR1331 inhibits tumor cell-driven angiogenesis in zebrafish. Taken together, these data shed light on the pleiotropic pharmacological effect of UniPR1331, and point to Δ5-cholenic acid as a promising molecular scaffold for the development of multitarget antiangiogenic compounds.
What colour are your eyes? Teaching the genetics of eye colour & colour vision. Edridge Green Lecture RCOphth Annual Congress Glasgow May 2019
Authors: Mackey David A.
Published: August 2021

Eye colour and colour perception are excellent examples to use when teaching genetics as they encompass not simply the basic Mendelian genetics of dominant, recessive and X-linked disorders, but also many of the new concepts such as non-allelic diseases, polygenic disease, phenocopies, genome-wide association study (GWAS), founder effects, gene-environment interaction, evolutionary drivers for variations, copy number variation, insertions deletions, methylation and gene inactivation. Beyond genetics, colour perception touches on concepts involving optics, physics, physiology and psychology and can capture the imagination of the population, as we saw with social media trend of “#the dress”. Television shows such as Game of Thrones focused attention on the eye colour of characters, as well as their Dire-wolves and Dragons. These themes in popular culture can be leveraged as tools to teach and engage everyone in genetics, which is now a key component in all eye diseases. As the explosion of data from genomics, big data and artificial intelligence transforms medicine, ophthalmologists need to be genetically literate. Genetics is relevant, not just for Inherited Retinal Diseases and congenital abnormalities but also for the leading causes of blindness: age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, myopia, diabetic retinopathy and cataract. Genetics should be part of the armamentarium of every practicing ophthalmologist. We need to ask every patient about their family history. In the near future, patients will attend eye clinics with genetic results showing they are at high risk of certain eye diseases and ophthalmologists will need to know how to screen, follow and treat these patients.
Real-space observations of 60-nm skyrmion dynamics in an insulating magnet under low heat flow
Authors: Yu Xiuzhen , Kagawa Fumitaka , Seki Shinichiro , Kubota Masashi , Masell Jan , Yasin Fehmi S. , Nakajima Kiyomi , Nakamura Masao , Kawasaki Masashi , Nagaosa Naoto , Tokura Yoshinori
Published: August 2021

Thermal-current induced electron and spin dynamics in solids –dubbed “caloritronics”– have generated widespread interest in both fundamental physics and spintronics applications. Here, we examine the dynamics of nanometric topological spin textures, skyrmions driven by a temperature gradient ∇T or heat flow, that are evaluated through in-situ real-space observations in an insulating helimagnet Cu2OSeO3. We observe increases of the skyrmion velocity and the Hall angle with increasing ∇T above a critical value of ~ 13 mK/mm, which is two orders of magnitude lower than the ∇T required to drive ferromagnetic domain walls. A comparable magnitude of ∇T is also observed to move the domain walls between a skyrmion domain and the non-topological conical-spin domain from cold to hot regions. Our results demonstrate the efficient manipulation of skyrmions by temperature gradients, a promising step towards energy-efficient “green” spintronics.
The paraventricular thalamus provides a polysynaptic brake on limbic CRF neurons to sex-dependently blunt binge alcohol drinking and avoidance behavior in mice
Authors: Levine Olivia B. , Skelly Mary Jane , Miller John D. , Rivera-Irizarry Jean K. , Rowson Sydney A. , DiBerto Jeffrey F. , Rinker Jennifer A. , Thiele Todd E. , Kash Thomas L. , Pleil Kristen E.
Published: August 2021

Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) neurons that synthesize corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) drive binge alcohol drinking and anxiety. Here, we found that female C57BL/6J mice binge drink more than males and have greater basal BNSTCRFneuron excitability and synaptic excitation. We identified a dense VGLUT2 + synaptic input from the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) that releases glutamate directly onto BNSTCRFneurons but also engages a large BNST interneuron population to ultimately inhibit BNSTCRFneurons, and this polysynaptic PVTVGLUT2-BNSTCRFcircuit is more robust in females than males. Chemogenetic inhibition of the PVTBNSTprojection promoted binge alcohol drinking only in female mice, while activation reduced avoidance behavior in both sexes. Lastly, repeated binge drinking produced a female-like phenotype in the male PVT-BNSTCRFexcitatory synapse without altering the function of PVTBNSTneurons per se. Our data describe a complex, feedforward inhibitory PVTVGLUT2-BNSTCRFcircuit that is sex-dependent in its function, behavioral roles, and alcohol-induced plasticity.
Unveiling the additive-assisted oriented growth of perovskite crystallite for high performance light-emitting diodes
Authors: Zhu Lin , Cao Hui , Xue Chen , Zhang Hao , Qin Minchao , Wang Jie , Wen Kaichuan , Fu Zewu , Jiang Tao , Xu Lei , Zhang Ya , Cao Yu , Tu Cailing , Zhang Ju , Liu Dawei , Zhang Guangbin , Kong Decheng , Fan Ning , Li Gongqiang , Yi Chang , Peng Qiming , Chang Jin , Lu Xinhui , Wang Nana , Huang Wei , Wang Jianpu
Published: August 2021

Solution-processed metal halide perovskites have been recognized as one of the most promising semiconductors, with applications in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar cells and lasers. Various additives have been widely used in perovskite precursor solutions, aiming to improve the formed perovskite film quality through passivating defects and controlling the crystallinity. The additive’s role of defect passivation has been intensively investigated, while a deep understanding of how additives influence the crystallization process of perovskites is lacking. Here, we reveal a general additive-assisted crystal formation pathway for FAPbI3 perovskite with vertical orientation, by tracking the chemical interaction in the precursor solution and crystallographic evolution during the film formation process. The resulting understanding motivates us to use a new additive with multi-functional groups, 2-(2-(2-Aminoethoxy)ethoxy)acetic acid, which can facilitate the orientated growth of perovskite and passivate defects, leading to perovskite layer with high crystallinity and low defect density and thereby record-high performance NIR perovskite LEDs (~800 nm emission peak, a peak external quantum efficiency of 22.2% with enhanced stability).
Rational design of chemically complex metallic glasses by hybrid modeling guided machine learning
Authors: Zhou Z. Q. , He Q. F. , Liu X. D. , Wang Q. , Luan J. H. , Liu C. T. , Yang Y.
Published: August 2021

The compositional design of metallic glasses (MGs) is a long-standing issue in materials science and engineering. However, traditional experimental approaches based on empirical rules are time consuming with a low efficiency. In this work, we successfully developed a hybrid machine learning (ML) model to address this fundamental issue based on a database containing ~5000 different compositions of metallic glasses (either bulk or ribbon) reported since 1960s. Unlike the prior works relying on empirical parameters for featurization of data, we designed modeling guided data descriptors in line with the recent theoretical models on amorphization in chemically complex alloys for the development of the hybrid classification-regression ML algorithms. Our hybrid ML modeling was validated both numerically and experimentally. Most importantly, it enabled the discovery of MGs (either bulk or ribbon) through the ML-aided deep search of a multitude of quaternary to scenery alloy compositions. The computational framework herein established is expected to accelerate the design of MG compositions and expand their applications by probing the complex and multi-dimensional compositional space that has never been explored before.
LOXL2 attenuates osteoarthritis through inactivating Integrin/FAK signaling
Authors: Zhang Caixia , Zhu Mengjiao , Wang Huijuan , Wen Juan , Huang Ziwei , Chen Sheng , Zhao Hongting , Li Huang
Published: August 2021

Temporomandibular joint OA (TMJOA) is a common degenerative joint disease, leads to structural damage and ultimately loss of function. Matrix degradation is one of the first pathogenesis during the progression of OA, it was effective to inhibit matrix degradation to block the development of OA. In this study, an in vivo model (compressive mechanical force) and an in vitro model (IL-1β) were used to induce OA-like changes in TMJ cartilage and chondrocytes. We revealed lysyl oxidase like-2 (LOXL2) play a critical role in TMJOA. LOXL2 expression decreased in mechanical stress/IL-β induced TMJOA-like lesions in both in vivo models and in vitro models. Furthermore, recombinant LOXL2 (rhLOXL2) treatment ameliorated the degenerative changes induced by mechanical stress in vivo, including the thinning cartilage, down-expression of collagen II and proteoglycan, and over-expression of TNF-a, while LOXL2 antibody (anti-LOXL2) treatment exacerbated these changes. Mechanistically, the protection of LOXL2 in chondrocytes was induced partly through activation of the Integrin/FAK pathway. The inhibition of the Integrin/FAK pathway could neutralized the effects caused by rhLOXL2. Collectively, our study suggests that the LOXL2 plays a protective role in mechanical stress induced TMJOA-like changes, and the Integrin/FAK pathway may be a key downstream pathway in this process.