Hasil untuk "History of Africa"

D. Friess, Kerrylee Rogers, C. Lovelock et al.

Intertidal mangrove forests are a dynamic ecosystem experiencing rapid changes in extent and habitat quality over geological history, today and into the future. Climate and sea level have drastically altered mangrove distribution since their appearance in the geological record ∼75 million years ago (Mya), through to the Holocene. In contrast, contemporary mangrove dynamics are driven primarily by anthropogenic threats, including pollution, overextraction, and conversion to aquaculture and agriculture. Deforestation rates have declined in the past decade, but the future of mangroves is uncertain; new deforestation frontiers are opening, particularly in Southeast Asia and West Africa, despite international conservation policies and ambitious global targets for rehabilitation. In addition, geological and climatic processes such as sea-level rise that were important over geological history will continue to influence global mangrove distribution in the future. Recommendations are given to reframe mangrove conservation, with a view to improving the state of mangroves in the future.

W. Murphy, E. Eizirik, S. O'Brien et al.

Professor Dr. Friedrich Ruttner

R. Nielsen, J. Akey, M. Jakobsson et al.

M. Jakobsson, Sonja W. Scholz, P. Scheet et al.

M. Campbell, S. Tishkoff

A. Case, A. Deaton

Cameron Tice, Puria Radmard, Samuel Ratnam et al.

Pretraining corpora contain extensive discourse about AI systems, yet the causal influence of this discourse on downstream alignment remains poorly understood. If prevailing descriptions of AI behaviour are predominantly negative, LLMs may internalise corresponding behavioural priors, giving rise to self-fulfilling misalignment. This paper provides the first controlled study of this hypothesis by pretraining 6.9B-parameter LLMs with varying amounts of (mis)alignment discourse. We find that discussion of AI contributes to misalignment. Upsampling synthetic training documents about AI misalignment leads to a notable increase in misaligned behaviour. Conversely, upsampling documents about aligned behaviour reduces misalignment scores from 45% to 9%. We consider this evidence of self-fulfilling alignment. These effects are dampened, but persist through post-training. Our findings establish the study of how pretraining data shapes alignment priors, or alignment pretraining, as a complement to post-training. We recommend practitioners consider pretraining for alignment alongside capabilities. We share our models, data, and evaluations at AlignmentPretraining.ai.

Steven M. Radil, Nick Dorward, Olivier Walther et al.

Existing models of political violence often emphasize discrete transitions, when conflicts emerge, escalate, or subside, without considering the longer trajectories of violence that accumulate across time and space. This paper introduces a spatially explicit longitudinal sequence analysis to address this gap. Using event-level data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset covering Africa from 1997 to 2024, we classify locations according to the intensity and spatial concentration of violence, tracing how these states evolve into distinct conflict trajectories. Applying optimal matching and clustering techniques, we identify six recurrent patterns ranging from short-lived, localized outbreaks to protracted high-intensity conflicts. We further assess how these trajectories align across neighboring areas, revealing evidence of spatial interdependence, particularly in border regions. By highlighting the temporal rhythms and geographic linkages of political violence, the study advances conflict research beyond isolated transitions and provides a framework for understanding the life cycles of violence.

A. A. Abdullahi

Prior to the introduction of cosmopolitan medicine, traditional medicine used to be the dominant medical system available to millions of people in Africa in both rural and urban communities. However, the arrival of the Europeans marked a significant turning point in the history of this age-long tradition and culture. This paper examines the trends and challenges of traditional medicine in Africa. The impact of colonialism on African traditional medicine is also examined. Although the paper is on Africa, references are drawn around the world to buttress the growing demand for traditional medicine. The paper concludes that to minimise the current distrust between modern and traditional doctors and to achieve the objective of regulation, standardisation and cooperation, both traditional and modern doctors must acknowledge their areas of strengths and weaknesses from which they operate and be genuinely concerned about the difficult but necessary task of being human.

Rémi Dewière

Álvaro Trigo Maldonado

El siguiente trabajo presenta una traducción del cuento “Miseuto Bang” 미스터 방 (Mister Bang) (1946), de Chae Mansik, una obra clásica del periodo de la liberación de Corea aún no publicada en español. El estudio incluye un análisis interpretativo que explora el significado del cuento en el contexto histórico en que emerge y reflexiona sobre el proceso de descolonización que propone el autor desde la lente de la ficción. Este análisis pretende enfatizar la importancia histórica y cultural de esta obra y aportar a los lectores un entendimiento de su temática y su perspectiva.

Mendinatou Agbetou, Toussaint Avolonto, Corine Houehanou et al.

Abstract Background Headache is a public health problem in Africa and is a significant cause of neurological consultations, imposing a heavy burden. Data on its actual economic burden are scarce in Africa. This study aims to evaluate the direct cost of headache management in 2023 and to identify factors associated with the high direct cost of headache management. Methods This cohort study with descriptive and analytical aims was conducted from June 15 to October 15, 2023, in the neurology unit of the teaching hospital of Borgou in Parakou, on 91 subjects with headaches, including migraine, tension type headache, trigeminal neuralgia, cluster headache, paroxysmal hemicrania and secondary headache. Any patient who had experienced headaches in the past 12 months, who was aged at least 18 years and who provided informed consent was included. The direct cost of headache management was defined as the sum of costs by consumption level category (consultation, diagnostic tests, treatments, transport, hospitalization costs, other nonmedical costs) and the monetary value of the main companion. This cost was expressed in Benin’s local currency (West African francs XOF), with a corresponding amount in euros. The direct cost of headache care was considered high when the mean monthly direct cost was more than 10% of the guaranteed minimum wage in Benin. Consumption level data were collected through an individual interview, supplemented by a review of medical records, notebooks, and receipts for headache management. Data entry was carried out via the KoboCollect application. Data analysis was performed using EpiInfo 7.2 software. Results A total of 91 participants were included, with 51 women (56.04%). The mean age was 38.91 ± 14.52 years. The monthly direct cost estimated one month after inclusion was high, calculated at XOF1,599,400 (€2,438.26), with an average of XOF17,575.82 ± 10,290.68 (€26.79 ± 15.69), representing 33.80% of the minimum wage in Benin. The global annual direct cost of headaches was XOF15,537,875 (€23,687.23) with a higher cost for tension type headaches at XOF6,077,530 (€9,265.09), whereas that of migraine was calculated at XOF4,603,970 (€7,018.67). The factors associated with high costs of headache management were a history of anxiety (p = 0.02), the presence of comorbidities (p = 0.005), the frequency of attacks (p = 0.048), and consumption related to psychiatric consultation (p = 0.02). Conclusion The direct cost of managing headaches is high, with multiple associated factors. Strategies aimed at reducing this cost are urgently needed to optimize management and influence national public health policy for headache patients in Benin.

Efrem Amanuel Data, Daniel Izuikedinachi Okoh, Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu et al.

This study investigates the reliability of the African Regional Ionospheric Total Electron Content (AfriTEC) model during the descending phase of Solar Cycle 24 (2016-2017) across East Africa. Using GNSS-derived TEC data from five equatorial and low-latitude stations MOIU, MAL2, ZAMB, ADIS, and MBAR the model's performance is assessed through statistical metrics, including Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and correlation coefficient r. Results indicate that the AfriTEC model effectively captures the diurnal and seasonal behavior of TEC, particularly during equinoxes, with MAE values generally below 1.5 TECU and correlation coefficients exceeding 0.80. However, discrepancies emerge during solstice periods and post-sunset hours, reflecting the model's limitations in representing complex ionospheric processes such as the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA). To benchmark its performance, AfriTEC is also compared against the widely used NeQuick model. AfriTEC demonstrates superior regional adaptability and reduced error under most conditions, though it remains sensitive to localized ionospheric disturbances. These findings suggest that while AfriTEC is a valuable tool for ionospheric modeling in whole Africa especially at East African sector, enhancements incorporating real-time solar and geomagnetic indices could further improve its predictive capabilities.

Hiroto Sato, Konan Shimizu

In social learning environments, agents acquire information from both private signals and the observed actions of predecessors, referred to as history. We define the value of history as the gain in expected payoff from accessing both the private signal and history, compared to relying on the signal alone. We first characterize the information structures that maximize this value, showing that it is highest under a mixture of full information and no information. We then apply these insights to a model of markets for history, where a monopolistic data seller collects and sells access to history. In equilibrium, the seller's dynamic pricing becomes the value of history for each agent. This gives the seller incentives to increase the value of history by designing the information structure. The seller optimal information discloses less information than the socially optimal level.

Daniele Dominici

The history of the Arcetri Institute of Physics at the University of Florence is analyzed from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1960s. Thanks to the arrival of Garbasso in 1913, not only did the Institute gain new premises on Arcetri hill, but also hosted brilliant young physicists such as Rita Brunetti, Enrico Fermi, Franco Rasetti in the '20s and Enrico Persico, Bruno Rossi, Gilberto Bernardini, Daria Bocciarelli, Lorenzo Emo Capodilista, Giuseppe Occhialini and Giulio Racah in the '30s, engaged in the emerging fields of Quantum Mechanics and Cosmic Rays. This internationally renowned Arcetri School dissolved in the late 1930s mainly for the transfer of its protagonists to chairs in other Italian or foreign universities. After the war, the legacy was taken up by some students of this school who formed research groups in the fields of nuclear physics and elementary particle physics. As far as theoretical physics is concerned, after the Fermi and Persico periods, these studies enjoyed a new expansion in the sixties thanks to the arrival of Raoul Gatto who created in Arcetri the first Italian school of theoretical physics.

David Demitri Africa, Sara M. Kapoor, Theo Simon Sorg et al.

Modular exponentiation is crucial to number theory and cryptography, yet remains largely unexplored from a mechanistic interpretability standpoint. We train a 4-layer encoder-decoder Transformer model to perform this operation and investigate the emergence of numerical reasoning during training. Utilizing principled sampling strategies, PCA-based embedding analysis, and activation patching, we examine how number-theoretic properties are encoded within the model. We find that reciprocal operand training leads to strong performance gains, with sudden generalization across related moduli. These synchronized accuracy surges reflect grokking-like dynamics, suggesting the model internalizes shared arithmetic structure. We also find a subgraph consisting entirely of attention heads in the final layer sufficient to achieve full performance on the task of regular exponentiation. These results suggest that transformer models learn modular arithmetic through specialized computational circuits, paving the way for more interpretable and efficient neural approaches to modular exponentiation.

Daniel Ataanya Abera, Christopher Larbie, James Abugri et al.

ABSTRACT Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) remains a global public health problem, which affects the well‐being of mothers and their children in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Studies conducted in different geographical areas provide varied results on its prevalence and predictors. Understanding the extent and predictors of GDM in SSA is important for developing effective interventions and policies. Thus, this review aimed to investigate the prevalence of GDM and its predictive factors in sub‐Saharan Africa. Methods We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) standards in this review. An extensive search of the PubMed, Web of Sciences and EMBASE databases was carried out covering papers from 2012 to 2022 to assess the prevalence and predictors of GDM. Microsoft Excel 2019 was utilised for study management. GraphPad Prism Version 8.0 and the MedCalc statistical software were employed for data analysis. The findings were analysed using textual descriptions, tables, forest plots and heat maps. Results Using 30 studies with 23,760 participants that satisfied the inclusion criteria, the review found the overall prevalence of GDM in SSA to be 3.05% (1.85%–4.54%). History of preterm delivery, alcohol consumption, family history of diabetes, history of stillbirths, history of macrosomia, overweight or obesity and advanced mother age were all significant predictors of gestational diabetes. Additionally, various biomarkers such as haemoglobin, adiponectin, leptin, resistin, visfatin, vitamin D, triglycerides and dietary intake type were identified as significant predictors of GDM. Conclusion In sub‐Saharan Africa, there is a high pooled prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus. In the light of the predictors of GDM identified in this review, it is strongly recommended to implement early screening for women at risk of developing gestational diabetes during their pregnancy. This proactive approach is essential for enhancing the overall well‐being of both mothers and children.

Mona Ibrahim Abouzeid, Mohamed Gamal Elsehrawy, Maha Mahmoud Saadoon et al.

Background: Intravenous complications, especially pediatric IV infiltration, are common in pediatric departments because such complications occur more frequently in children than in adults. Aim: To investigate the pediatric nurses’ performance enhancement regarding the management of Pediatric IV infiltration. Subjects and Method: A quasi-experimental study was conducted. The study was carried out at Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Port Said Universal Health Insurance Hospitals. Data was collected from 50 pediatric nurses by using the Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire and an observational checklist schedule for nurses’ practice before and after the implementation of an educational program regarding intravenous infiltration management. Results: No statistically significant relationship between pediatric nurses’ knowledge before and after the program, while a statistically significant relation was evidenced between their practice before and after the program. Conclusion: the educational program was effective for pediatric nurses’ performance by increasing their knowledge and improving their practice, with only a statistically significant difference between nurses’ practice before and after the program. Recommendations: The educational program should be periodically conducted for pediatric nurses to enhance their performance to achieve high-quality nursing care for pediatric patients.

Kelebogile Thomas Resane

Evangelicals living in a democracy are faced with the pressures of constitutionalism and the influence of secularism. These two forces unsettle God from the public spaces and enhance decadent culture. This article addresses the current challenges Evangelicals face in the decadent culture of democracy in South Africa. The essence of the proposal is how South African Evangelicals should maintain their confession, while surrounded by unethical practices of corruption and greed. An interdisciplinary approach is followed, so literature from the disciplines of Church History, Systematic Theology, Ethics, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and Political Studies are reviewed to address the problem. The history of the Evangelical faith and the rationale behind Evangelical awakenings open the discussion into the presentation. The Evangelical dogma is highlighted, followed by the definition of democracy with its entrenched decadent culture. Church, government, and the family are identified as places of contestation, where Evangelicals sense the threat to their doctrinal tenets. The challenge faced by Evangelicals can be addressed by remaining evangelically rooted and by holding unswervingly to three major doctrinal tenets, which are the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of human depravity, and in the belief that the Bible is the measure of faith and conduct.