bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
United Kingdom aid cuts: implications for financing health systems
Authors: McDade Kaci Kennedy , Mao Wenhui , Prizzon Annalisa , Huang Ro W. , Ogbuoji Osondu 
Published: May 2023

BackgroundThe United Kingdom (UK) used to be the second largest bilateral provider of official development assistance (ODA) for health. However, in 2021 the UK government cut its annual aid budget by 30%. We aim to understand how these cuts might affect financing for health systems in UK aid recipient countries.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis of domestic and external funding for 134 countries that received UK aid for the 2019–2020 budget year. We grouped countries into two cohorts: those that continued to receive aid in 2020–2021 (“budget”) and those that did not (“no budget”). Data was collected from publicly available datasets and we compared UK’s ODA, UK’s health ODA with total ODA, general government expenditures and domestic general government health expenditure to assess the donor dependency and donor concentration of budget and no budget countries.FindingsBudget countries are more reliant on external aid to finance their governments and health systems than no budget countries, with a handful of exceptions. While the UK does not appear to be a major ODA contributor among most no budget countries, it is in many budget countries. Two no budget countries in particular may be faced with health systems financing challenges given their high ratios of UK health aid to domestic government health expenditures: the Gambia (1.24:1) and Eritrea (0.33:1). Although “safe” for this budget cycle, a number of low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have very high ratios of UK health aid to domestic government health expenditures, including South Sudan (3.15:1), Sierra Leone (0.48:1), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (0.34:1).InterpretationThe 2021–2022 UK aid cuts could have negative impacts in a few countries highly dependent on UK health aid. Its departure could leave these countries with rather large funding gaps to fill and create a more concentrated donor climate.
Associations between the muscle quality index and adult lung functions from NHANES 2011–2012
Authors: Weng Luoqi , Xu Zhixiao , Chen Yuhan , Chen Chengshui 
Published: May 2023

BackgroundThe muscle quality index (MQI), as an important component of sarcopenia, is defined as the ratio of muscle strength to muscle mass. Lung function, is a clinical indicator to assess ventilation and air exchange function. This study investigated the relationship between lung function indices and MQI in the NHANES database from 2011 to 2012.MethodsThis study included 1,558 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2011 to 2012. Muscle mass and muscle strength were assessed using DXA and handgrip strength, and all participants underwent pulmonary function measurements. Multiple linear regression and multivariable logistic regression were used to assess the correlation between the MQI and lung function indices.ResultsIn the adjusted model, MQI was significantly correlated with FVC% and PEF%. And, after quartiles of MQI in Q3, where FEV1%, FVC%, and PEF% were all associated with MQI, in Q4, a lower relative risk of a restrictive spirometry pattern was linked to increased MQI. Compared to the lower age group, the relationship between the MQI and lung function indices was more significant in the higher age group.ConclusionThere was an association between the MQI and lung function indices. Furthermore, in the middle-aged and older adult populations, lung function indicators and restrictive ventilation impairment were significantly associated with MQI. This implies that improving lung function through muscle training may be beneficial to this group.
Frailty and risk of adverse outcomes among community-dwelling older adults in China: a comparison of four different frailty scales
Authors: Qin Fei , Guo Yanfei , Ruan Ye , Huang Zhezhou , Sun Shuangyuan , Gao Shuna , Ye Jinghong , Wu Fan 
Published: May 2023

BackgroundData on which frailty scales are most suitable for estimating risk in Chinese community populations remain limited. Herein we examined and compared four commonly used frailty scales in predicting adverse outcomes in a large population-based cohort of Chinese older adults.MethodsA total of 5402 subjects (mean age 66.3 ± 9.6 years, 46.6% male) from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) in Shanghai were studied. Frailty was measured using a 35-item frailty index (FI), the frailty phenotype (FP), FRAIL, and Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI). Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to evaluate the independent association between frailty and outcomes including 4-year disability, hospitalization, and 4- and 7-year all-cause mortality. The accuracy for predicting these outcomes was determined by evaluating the area under the curve (AUC). The prevalence of frailty, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated using our proposed cut-off points and other different values.ResultsPrevalence of frailty ranged from 4.2% (FRAIL) to 16.9% (FI). FI, FRAIL and TFI were comparably associated with 4-year hospitalization, and 4- and 7-year mortality (adjusted odds ratios [aORs] 1.44–1.69, 1.91–2.22 and 1.85–2.88, respectively). FRAIL conferred the greatest risk of 4-year disability, followed by FI and TFI (aOR 5.55, 3.50, and 1.91, respectively). FP only independently predicted 4- and 7-year mortality (aOR 1.57 and 2.21, respectively). AUC comparisons showed that FI, followed by TFI and FRAIL, exhibited acceptable predictive accuracy for 4-year disability, 4- and 7-year mortality (AUCs 0.76–0.78, 0.71–0.71, 0.65–0.72, respectively), whereas all scales poorly predicted 4-year hospitalization (AUCs 0.53–0.57). For each scale, while specificity estimates (85.3–97.3%) were high and similar across all outcomes, their sensitivity estimates (6.3–56.8%) were not sufficient yet. Prevalence of frailty, sensitivity, and specificity varied considerably when different cut-off points were used.ConclusionFrailty defined using any of the four scales was associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes. Although FI, FRAIL and TFI exhibited fair-to-moderate predictive accuracy and high specificity estimates, their sensitivity estimates were not sufficient yet. Overall, FI performed best in estimating risk, while TFI and FRAIL were additionally useful, the latter perhaps being more applicable to Chinese community-dwelling older adults.
Exploring the association between fat-related traits in chickens and the RGS16 gene: insights from polymorphism and functional validation analysis
Authors: Ye Mao , Fan Zhexia , Xu Yuhang , Luan Kang , Guo Lijin , Zhang Siyu , Luo Qingbin 
Published: May 2023

IntroductionExcessive fat deposition in chickens can lead to reduced feed utilization and meat quality, resulting in significant economic losses for the broiler industry. Therefore, reducing fat deposition has become an important breeding objective in addition to achieving high broiler weight, growth rate, and feed conversion efficiency. In our previous studies, we observed high expression of Regulators of G Protein Signaling 16 Gene (RGS16) in high-fat individuals. This led us to speculate that RGS16 might be involved in the process of fat deposition in chickens.MethodsThus, we conducted a polymorphism and functional analysis of the RGS16 gene to investigate its association with fat-related phenotypic traits in chickens. Using a mixed linear model (MLM), this study explored the relationship between RGS16 gene polymorphisms and fat-related traits for the first time. We identified 30 SNPs of RGS16 in a population of Wens Sanhuang chickens, among which 8 SNPs were significantly associated with fat-related traits, including sebum thickness (ST), abdominal fat weight (AFW), and abdominal fat weight (AFR). Furthermore, our findings demonstrated that AFW, AFR, and ST showed significant associations with at least two or more out of the eight identified SNPs of RGS16. We also validated the role of RGS16 in ICP-1 cells through various experimental methods, including RT-qPCR, CCK- 8, EdU assays, and oil red O staining.ResultsOur functional validation experiments showed that RGS16 was highly expressed in the abdominal adipose tissue of high-fat chickens and played a critical role in the regulation of fat deposition by promoting preadipocyte differentiation and inhibiting their proliferation. Taken together, our findings suggest that RGS16 polymorphisms are associated with fat-related traits in chickens. Moreover, the ectopic expression of RGS16 could inhibit preadipocyte proliferation but promote preadipocyte differentiation.DiscussionBased on our current findings, we propose that the RGS16 gene could serve as a powerful genetic marker for marker-assisted breeding of chicken fat-related traits.
Thoracic Mobilization and Respiratory Muscle Endurance Training Improve Diaphragm Thickness and Respiratory Function in Patients with a History of COVID-19
Authors: Lee Yang-Jin 
Published: May 2023

Background and Objectives: Common problems in people with COVID-19 include decreased respiratory strength and function. We investigated the effects of thoracic mobilization and respiratory muscle endurance training (TMRT) and lower limb ergometer (LE) training on diaphragm thickness and respiratory function in patients with a history of COVID-19. Materials and Methods: In total, 30 patients were randomly divided into a TMRT training group and an LE training group. The TMRT group performed thoracic mobilization and respiratory muscle endurance training for 30 min three times a week for 8 weeks. The LE group performed lower limb ergometer training for 30 min three times a week for 8 weeks. The participants’ diaphragm thickness was measured via rehabilitative ultrasound image (RUSI) and a respiratory function test was conducted using a MicroQuark spirometer. These parameters were measured before the intervention and 8 weeks after the intervention. Results: There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) between the results obtained before and after training in both groups. Right diaphragm thickness at rest, diaphragm thickness during contraction, and respiratory function were significantly more improved in the TMRT group than in the LE group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we confirmed the effects of TMRT training on diaphragm thickness and respiratory function in patients with a history of COVID-19.
MPLA et UNITA : processus de paix et logique de guerre
Authors: Messiant Christine 
Published: May 2023

MPLA and UNITA : Peace process and the logic of war.
The Bicesse Accords and their implementation slipped out of Angolan or any credible third party control. During their long was the MPLA and UNITA have more strengthened than weakened as armed powers and in their hegemonic ambition. They have in a «transition» which war the continuation of the war with different means, managed to remain as such. The resumption of the war will be the consequence of the failure of peacemaking and the disrepute of international campaign.
Réflexions sur la politique africaine de la France
Authors: Bayart Jean-François 
Published: May 2023

Considerations on the french policy in Africa.
Critics of Mitterrand’s policy reveal the deadlock in which it was involved underlining the risks of the dismantlement of the Franc area as a consequence of the devaluation of the CFA franc, the division and malfunctioning of the French governmental decision making system and the growing contradiction between Paris declared will of economic recovery with the Abidjan doctrine and the maintenance of diplomatic favouritism in South Sahara.
L’atonie mitterrandienne au Zaïre
Authors: Willame Jean-Claude 
Published: May 2023

Miterrandian apathy in zaire.
Despite the links established between the Elysée regulars and the Zairean barons , Mitterrand’s policy in Africa will have been less «mobutist» than the strongly political entrepreneurship of his predecesor. In 1981 too much was expected from the left. In fact there was but a low profile policy interrupted by a few annoyed moves towards the Zairean despot. Even Mobutu’s support to the French operation in Tchad won’t make him a regular of the Elysée. Finally there was in the French policy in Zaire more laziness than cynicism.
Un planteur sans État peut-il encore être un planteur ?
Authors: Janin Pierre 
Published: May 2023

Can a planter without state remain a planter ?
The recent changes in family-based cocoa (beti area) and coffee (bamileke area) small production units give us an opportunity to reexamine geopolitical and geo-economical share of smallholders in the Cameroonian State’s construction and reproduction.
In spite of the State withdrawal which led to the recovering of barter economy and the end of a protectionnist era, tree planters still remain an economic basis of accumulation and political stability. However, whether they can stay a social class with a specific cultural status, remains to be seen.
Le Front national islamique
Authors: Ibrahim Hayder 
Published: May 2023

The National Islamic Front.
The National Islamic Front has developed a theoretical discourse around the issue of democratic practice and has shown considerable flexibility in its political activities. Its main goal was to secure for itself a closer relationship to the centre of political power, even if that implied a shift in its alliance policy. The aim of this paper is to underline the major historical elements within the islamist movement and to put into perspective Hassan el-Turabi’s strategy.
Banques islamiques et sociétés islamiques d’investissement
Authors: Ahmed Einas 
Published: May 2023

Islamic banks and islamic investment societies.
The emergence of the islamic banking sector in Sudan, shortly after the inflation of the oil price in 1973-1974, was to a large degree made possible by the investment of Sudanese migrant workers and saoudi business. The Sudanese economy found itself increasingly under the control of islamic banks and investment societies, and this led to the access to power of the current regime and to the emergence of a new economic bourgeoisie. However, and paradoxically, these groupings tend to focus mainly on speculation, a tendency which is contrary to islamic values. This bourgeoisie is thus heavily responsible for the economic ruin of the country.
L’humanitaire et l’islamisme soudanais. Les organisations Da’wa Islamiya et Islamic African Relief Agency
Authors: Bellion-jourdan Jérôme 
Published: May 2023

Sudanese humanitarianism and islamism : the organizations Da'wa Islamyia and Islamic adrican relief agency.
After the oil boom of the 70’s, a number of islamic humanitarian societies appeared. Sudan was one of their favorite targets. Two of them, the IARA and the Da’wa Islamiya, are closely linked to the Sudanese islamic movement. They are funded by the Gulf countries, nevertheless they pretend that their activities are purely charity driven, responding to the universal norms and values implemented by international institutions. However, they show partisan tendencies, both religiously and politically, and they thus play a peculiar role in the Sudanese islamic system.
«Entrons dans la nation». Notes pour une étude du discours politique de la marginalité : le cas de la RENAMO du Mozambique
Authors: Cahen Michel 
Published: May 2023

Let's enter the nation! Studying the political discourse of marginality. The case of RENAMO.
If the Mozambique National Resistence (RENAMO) lost the elections of 1994 it nevertheless won a victory of legitimation. With 35 % of the votes, the MNR formerly called “the bandits” and supported by South Africa, confirmed its capacity to transform into a viable political party. The maintenance of undivided power by FRELIMO, allowed for the expression marginalized groups, but the expression of marginalization in itself does not define neither a political programme nor a political discourse, nor does it provide political leaders. The sign of political evolution, perceptible within RENAMO is in stark contrast with the example of UNITA in Angola. Furthermore, even if it is obvious that the elite does want to integrate the nation, nevertheless, and paradoxically, FRELIMO, the “enemy”, remains the pattern and the ideal. This is the reason why the new political context has not yet produced a new ideology of nation building.
La diplomatie africaine face aux conflits de la région des Grands Lacs
Authors: Ould-Abdallah Ahmedou 
Published: May 2023

African diplomacy in regard with the conflict in the great lakes area.
This article examines the consequences for Africa of the end of the Cold War and especially as this relates to the Great Lakes Area. The long denied conflicts which erupted had implication for most of the countries of the sub-region, and also involved some foreign countries. After giving an account of how the AOU and neighbouring countries have handled the crisis, this paper offers a number of questions, examining : the international status of Human Rights, Democracy and the legitimacy of the new leaders, the scope and limit of African intervention, and the role for African military intervention. Finally the paper will examine the relationship between the International community and the African countries and the way this answers to the people’s desire for the management of their own policies.
Les droits de l’homme et la justice pour fonder l’avenir
Authors: Gillet Eric 
Published: May 2023

Justice and human rights for the future.
This article describes the material conditions and intellectual atmosphere in which the defenders of Human Rights had to work in Rwanda and Burundi since 1990.
In spite of the material and social ordeals experienced by both countries, numerous people desperately continue to struggle for the creation of a mental space, impregnated with the values of justice and respect for Human Rights. In such a context, the support of the International community is essential.
Questions d’ethnies
Authors: Gaulme François 
Published: May 2023

Around ethnicity.
François Gaulme, in his reply to Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch ’s article published in «Débats» (n° 66), looks at the etymological roots of the notion of «ethnie». Arguing against the simplistic notion which is often made of this concept in French Africanist studies, he favours the use of the notion of ethnicity as used in British Africanist circles.
Les élections législatives burkinabè du 11 mai 1997 : des «élections pas comme les autres» ?
Authors: Loada Augustin 
Published: May 2023

The Burkina Faso legislative elections of 11 may 1997 : «elections like no others» ?
The Burkina Faso legislative elections of 11 May 1997 saw the crushing victory of President Compaore’s party, the CDP (Congrès pour la démocratie et le progrès). This victory was due to three main factors : the organisation of the CDP, their human resources and their innovative ability. With this in mind, the elections of May 1997 are, despite the imperfections which tarnished them, a sign of a certain rooting of the democratic process underway, as well of that of the stability of the current regime. From this point of view, these elections are profoundly ambivalent, in so far as the scale of the success of the President’s party makes the hypothesis of a change-over of political power improbable in the short and medium term.
0,4° au nord de l’équateur : une souveraineté à l’abandon
Authors: Katumanga Musambayi chrisanthus 
Published: May 2023

0,4° north of the equator : sovereignty in a state of neglect.
In the regions North of the Equator, the Kenyan State has left all sovereignty to warlords who use their control of a territory to terrorise neighbours and steal their livestock. In the West, the Pokots have remained unpunished and become the unquestioned masters of the livestock theft which supplies the markets of the rebellions in Uganda and Southern Sudan. In the East, the taking of sides of the regime in the Somali conflict and the fear of the Ethiopian threat leave the way clear for the most murderous feuds between different armed factions.
L’aide au développement dans les soubresauts de la globalisation financière
Authors: Coussy jean 
Published: May 2023

Development aid amid the turmoil of financial globalisation.
Since the 1980’s, a decade marked by a distinct trend towards globalisation, public development aid has become marginalised and de-legitimised by a flood of private investment, strongly supported by triumphant neo-liberal rhetoric. Private financing has imposed its own ways of selecting places for investment and its own vision of development conditions. This has led public development aid to become specialised in the financing of the most marginal of countries, particularly those from the African continent, and to be a way of putting pressure on governments to run liberal economic policies. The Asian crisis has broken some. The beliefs that were conveyed in this way and has brought the question of how to finance development back to the fore.
Archaïsme colonial, modernité sorcière et territorialisation du politique à Brazzaville, 1959-1995
Authors: Bernault Florence 
Published: May 2023

Colonial archaism, modern sorcery and territorialisation of politics in Brazzaville, 1959-1995.
Brazzaville, Congo’s foremost battleground, scene of countless deaths, incarnation of the State and the country’s main demographic reservoir, remains an essential issue in the struggles for power. But more than that, this city has structured the recent division of the entire Congolese space. The Lissouba, Kolélas and Sassou Nguesso strongholds reproduced the Brazzaville model with regard to sacredness and spatial order, rather than creating a new one. Each stronghold has its own central fortress, its spiritual places and its garrisons. The division of Congo during the recent civil wars illustrates not so much the reappearance of ancient geography as the contamination of the countryside by the strange modernity of the capital.
Laurent Désiré Kabila : les origines d’une anabase
Authors: Willame Jean-Claude 
Published: May 2023

The origins of an anabasis.
The start of the process leading to the victory of Kabila stems from three interdependent factors that are unconnected with the initiatives and the action of the «winner» himself. The first is the political toppling which took place in Rwanda in 1 994 ; the second is the exacerbation of political tensions in North and in South-Kivu, following the wave of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees, who set up camp on the borders of Zaire and Rwanda ; the third is the collapse, or rather the completion of the implosion, of the Zairian State structures.
Identifications et mobilisations au Congo-Kinshasa
Authors: de Villers Gauthier 
Published: May 2023

Political identifications and mobilisations in Congo-Kinshasa.
The observation of developments under the Kabila regime shows the importance of four factors of political identification and mobilisation : «nativeness», «Zairianity», «ethno-regionalism» and «generation». The second of these factors is linked to the conditions of the advent of a new government, while the others already had a driving force under the «democratic transition» and in previous periods in the history of the country.