This article is a systematic review of the literature on racial and/or ethnic disparities in NICU quality of care; we note important areas of intervention for improving infant outcomes. BrightcoveDefaultPlayer10.1542/6138655431001PEDS-VA_2018-3114 Video Abstract CONTEXT: Racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes of newborns requiring care in the NICU setting have been reported. The contribution of NICU care to disparities in outcomes is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review of the literature documenting racial/ethnic disparities in quality of care for infants in the NICU setting. DATA SOURCES: Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, and Web of Science were searched until March 6, 2018, by using search queries organized around the following key concepts: “neonatal intensive care units,” “racial or ethnic disparities,” and “quality of care.” STUDY SELECTION: English language articles up to March 6, 2018, that were focused on racial and/or ethnic differences in the quality of NICU care were selected. DATA EXTRACTION: Two authors independently assessed eligibility, extracted data, and cross-checked results, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Information extracted focused on racial and/or ethnic disparities in quality of care and potential mechanism(s) for disparities. RESULTS: Initial search yielded 566 records, 470 of which were unique citations. Title and abstract review resulted in 382 records. Appraisal of the full text of the remaining 88 records, along with the addition of 5 citations from expert consult or review of bibliographies, resulted in 41 articles being included. LIMITATIONS: Quantitative meta-analysis was not possible because of study heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this systematic review revealed complex racial and/or ethnic disparities in structure, process, and outcome measures, most often disadvantaging infants of color, especially African American infants. There are some exceptions to this pattern and each area merits its own analysis and discussion.
Objective We present a review of peer-reviewed English-language studies conducted outside the United States and Canada on the prevalence of sexual assault victimization in adolescence and adulthood published since 2010. Method A systematic literature search yielded 32 articles reporting on 45 studies from 29 countries. Studies that only provided prevalence estimates for sexual assault in intimate relationships or did not present separate rates for men and women were excluded. All studies were coded by two coders, and a risk of bias score was calculated for each study. Both past-year and prevalence rates covering longer periods were extracted. Results The largest number of studies came from Europe (n=21), followed by Africa (n=11), Asia and Latin America (n=6 each). One study came from the Middle East and no studies were found from Oceania. Across the 22 studies that reported past-year prevalence rates, figures ranged from 0% to 59.2% for women, 0.3% to 55.5% for men, and 1.5% to 18.2% for LGBT samples. The average risk of bias score was 5.7 out of 10. Studies varied widely in methodology. Conclusion Despite regional variation, most studies indicate that sexual assault is widespread. More sustained, systematic, and coordinated research efforts are needed to gauge the scale of sexual assault in different parts of the world and to develop prevention measures.
Marabel Morgan’s book Total Woman (1973) is an international bestseller that appeared in Afrikaans as Volkome vrou (1976). In the book, the author provides advice to women on achieving a more fulfilling marriage, but the underlying principles seem to be antifeminist. This article examines the text as a possible tool for a specific social agenda, namely the preservation of patriarchy. Critical discourse analysis is employed to analyse the text, while referencing theoretical frameworks on Christian self-help literature and propagandistic texts. A two-fold hypothesis is proposed and confirmed through the examination: (i) The text exhibits the typical structure of a self-help book, which, combined with Christian and propagandistic elements, helps convey a pro-patriarchal message; and (ii) certain discourse structures, including questionable argumentative structures, are put in place to construct specific antifeminist ideas and present them as attractive to readers. Ultimately, it is possible to highlight the harmful consequences of this type of text for society—both past and present—as it perpetuates patriarchy by influencing readers’ social cognition.
Introduction: Although HIV continues to have a high prevalence among adults in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes and hypertension is increasing rapidly. There is an urgent need to expand the capacity of healthcare systems in SSA to provide NCD services and scale up existing chronic care management pathways. A scoping review mapped extant policy and evidence based literature on the feasibility of integrating NCD care with HIV in the region. Methods: A scoping review methodology was utilised to conduct a systematic search of peer-reviewed and grey literature published in English language and with no date limitation. A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane library. The initial search identified 231 records considered for inclusion in this review. Twelve duplicate records were removed. The remaining 219 records were screened by title and abstract of which 165 records were excluded and 54 records were selected for full-text review. A further 16 records were excluded due to a lack of relevance or the unavailability of the full text article. Finally, 38 were charted and analysed thematically. Results: Thirty-eight studies were included. These comprised a range of different models to integrate NCD and HIV care in the region, reflecting differences in health system environments, and disease epidemiology. The studies provide a variety of evidence that integration of HIV and NCD care can be feasible and can improve clinical effectiveness and identify barriers and facilitators to integration and task shifting. The review confirms that integrated HIV and NCD care services is by-and-large feasible, being both clinically effective and cost-effective. Conclusion: The review may inform the understanding of how best to develop an integrated model of care service by reducing barriers to uptake, linkage and retention in HIV, diabetes and hypertension treatment in SSA countries.
The current study conducts a rigorous investigation into the multitude of challenges encountered by teachers within English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. Moreover, it seeks to uncover the multitude of factors that influence learners’ English language proficiency both within and beyond the educational environment. A comprehensive discussion regarding the instructional methodologies utilized by teachers and their individual approaches to ESL teaching is also included within the scope of this research. Centering the narrative on ESL teachers’ perspectives, a qualitative research methodology was deployed. This involved conducting in-depth interviews with ESL educators from three distinct schools located within the Northwest Province of South Africa, thereby ensuring a rich, context-specific understanding of the challenges at hand. Key findings unearthed from the research indicate a myriad of contributing factors that influence a learner’s ESL acquisition. These encompass the learners’ proficiency in their native language at the initial stages of ESL instruction, their socio-economic backgrounds, the influence and contribution of parents, and the availability of educational resources within their respective schools. In light of these findings, several recommendations are proposed to address the prevalent challenges in teaching and learning ESL in the Northwest Province of South Africa. These include the provision of in-service training for ESL teachers to enhance their pedagogical skills and strategies, the establishment of reading clubs to foster a culture of reading among learners, the creation of book banks to address resource constraints, and the active involvement of parents in monitoring their children’s academic progress. These proposed measures aim to create a more supportive and conducive environment for effective ESL instruction within the region.
Abstract:Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas are aggressive cancers with significant morbidity and mortality that can be confounded by health care disparities, particularly race. This article is intended to educate and provide evidence on the status of health care disparities in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. A review of the English-language literature was performed using Pubmed and MEDLINE. Results indicated that African American patients are diagnosed at a younger age, presented with higher tumor burden, are less likely to receive definitive cancer treatment, and have increased mortality compared with non-African American patients. Much of these differences are reversible and can be eliminated by education, instituting screening programs, and also extending health care coverage.
Research conducted by The Other Foundation has indicated that South Africans view the lives of queer individuals as lifestyle choice (34%), illness (12%), sin (5.10%), results of these individuals’ upbringing (3.80%) and/or resulting from the influence of ancestral spirits (3.70%). Advocacy and information about sexual orientation and sexual diversity through literary as characters may be instrumental in possibly changing negative perceptions of queer individuals. This article aims to show how a selected young adult queer novel, and the social messaging that emerges from the text, may be a potentially influential location for creating an awareness and better understanding of queer individuals. The aim of the investigation on which the article is based was to examine the possibility or viability of implementing critical literacy in secondary education systems in the language classroom as an opportunity to address social issues in heteronormative environments. The social messages found in queer texts may be used as entry points to fruitful discourse in language classroom environments. The study followed a qualitative approach with the use of critical hermeneutics as a strategy of inquiry and social constructivism as philosophical worldview. The queer text utilised was Openly Straight (2013) by Bill Konigsberg with the method of data generation being document analysis. The main findings were that queer texts should form part of the language classroom (as learners may read these texts critically and emphatically) and that Bill Konigsberg’s Openly Straight contained social messages that can contribute to positive influences on queer- and heterosexual readers.
From the point of view of systems and field theory, the value attached to a work of art, for example a literary text, is not only the result of the intrinsic characteristics of the text but also includes connections with institutions such as publishers, and factors like literary prizes, the value judgments of literary historians, of reviewers, and of literary critics. The current study examines the mentions of canonized Afrikaans writers in nine academic journals over the past two decades, taking into account more than 5 000 publications and more than 70 000 pages. It is shown which authors are mentioned most, but also which authors are mentioned most often together, and it is shown that authors are mostly mentioned together in the terms of genre. Although the current study represents a large study of the visibility of authors in the study of Afrikaans literature, suggestions for further research are also made.
Participatory epidemiology (PE) is a method that gathers data from groups through focus group interviews and participatory visual and scoring exercises. The method is often used in poor communities in low-income countries where it is hard to obtain conventional epidemiological data. This paper draws on research on the public sphere and democratic deliberation, along with research on language and interpretation, to suggest how PE research could be better equipped to account for diversity in local knowledge, include minority views and acknowledge power dynamics. These aspects are discussed under the three themes of 'plurality', 'power' and 'language'. A review of highly-cited PE literature suggests that PE research engages with plurality and power to a very limited extent, and only marginally more so with language and translation. Examples are taken from the authors' own PE research on African swine fever in -Uganda, classical swine fever in Germany, peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in Eastern Europe, and Ugandan pastoralists' understanding of cattle disease to provide more detail as to why conventional PE studies might fail to record issues of plurality, power and language, and also to suggest how this can be addressed. With reference to the literature on the public sphere and democratic deliberation, and on language and interpretation, this paper concludes with some suggestions as to how to take plurality, power and language into greater consideration in PE studies in future, thus improving the validity and reliability of PE data.
The forces of cosmopolitanism, globalization and neoliberal policies have advanced interfaith marriages globally. This study looks at the phenomenon of interfaith marriages between Muslims and Christians in Zongo communities in Accra. Zongo is a Hausa word used to refer to communities that have historically been associated with itinerant Muslim traders and which also served as Muslim enclaves in the Gold Coast. Today Zongo communities, which were once predominantly Muslim, are now religiously and ethnically pluralistic. There is a discernible mix of adherents of other religions in Zongo communities. In the study, we show that although doctrinal differences between Muslims and Christians serve as fundamental reference point in prohibiting interfaith marriages, there are other factors that make a future of more frequent and tolerated marriages between Muslims and Christians in Zongo communities in Accra seem doubtful.
History of Africa, African languages and literature
ABSTRACT This article puts forward the argument for language supportive learning for learners in English medium instruction (EMI) classrooms based on the findings from a mixed methods study in Rwanda. The article first reviews the relevant literature and research which looks at the concept of language support, focusing on textbooks and pedagogy in sub-Saharan African EMI countries. The scant literature which exists suggests that current teaching practice and textbook design are not targeted for learners learning in a second language which frequently results in the global language acting as a major barrier to effective learning across the curriculum. The potential of ‘language supportive textbooks and pedagogy’ for addressing such a barrier is then considered through an analysis of a recent intervention in Primary 4 Rwandan classrooms. Findings suggest that language supportive learning can lead to significant improvements in learner outcomes and more effective engagement with subjects across the curriculum. Conclusions consider implications for bilingual education policies in Rwanda and further afield.
The Ethiopic martyrdom of Anthony Rawḥ, attested in two relatively ancient manuscripts is a hagiographical text set in the Muslim Arab world. As such, it is an example of the perception that Christian Ethiopia had of the Muslim world at the time. This article offers some amendments to the printed edition and a few general remarks about the place of this text within the Ge’ez literary tradition.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Philology. Linguistics
This article illustrates the theme of the poetic in Ben Okri’s stokus from his Tales of freedom. It does this principally through an exploration of this new literary mode and its use of serendipity. As a sudden insight, serendipity becomes, in this Nigerian writer’s hands, a poetic device equivalent to illumination or an epiphanic moment. The introduction is an attempt to show the interrelationship between poetry and thought, on the one hand, and poetic experience, creative consciousness and serendipity, on the other. This is followed by a brief digression to outline the paucity of critical reception of this prose anthology, followed by a focused discussion of the storytelling form, in general, and the stoku, in particular. This elliptical form to which Ben Okri gives the name stoku is, as he states in Tales of freedom, ‘an amalgam of short story and haiku’. A comparison between the conventions inherent in the ancient Japanese art of tanka or haiku (short poems), also known as waku and displaying the poet’s imaginative wit (derived from the Anglo-Saxon witan [to know]), and those of Okri’s newer art form, the stoku, follows. The core of the article focuses on a brief analysis of a select number of Okri’s 13 rhapsodies in prose, showing how each stoku serves to illustrate a poetically rendered moment of insight, a vision or a paradox. In Okri’s Tales of freedom, the mythic conjunction between short story and haiku reveals hitherto hidden aspects of life. Through this innovative medium, akin to flash fiction, the subconscious can illuminate unknown worlds. This is akin to experiencing serendipity, linked to interiority, to inner vision. The argument concludes by pointing to the serendipities captured obliquely yet poetically in the stokus selected for discussion.
Die pleidooi vir die digterlike in Ben Okri se stokus uit Tales of freedom (2009). Hierdie artikel illustreer die tema van die poëtiese in Ben Okri se stokus uit sy Tales of freedom. Dit ondersoek hierdie nuwe literêre vorm en die gelukkige (maar onbedoelde) saamval van denke en poësie (serendipiteit) daarin. As ‘n skielike insig, word serendipiteit in die Nigeriese skrywer se hande ‘n digterlike kunsgreep vergelykbaar met illuminasie of epifanie. Die inleiding is ‘n poging om die onderlinge verwantskap aan te dui tussen poësie en denke, enersyds, en digterlike ervaring, kreatiewe bewussyn en serendipiteit, andersyds. Daarna volg ‘n kort uitweiding oor die gebrek aan kritiese reaksie op hierdie prosaversameling, gevolg deur ‘n gefokusde bespreking van die vertelling in die algemeen, en die stoku, in die besonder. Hierdie elliptiese vorm, wat Ben Okri die stoku noem, is, soos hy sê in Tales of freedom sê, ‘n ‘amalgaam van kortverhaal en haikoe’. Daarop volg ‘n vergelyking tussen die konvensies van die antieke Japannese kunsvorm van die tanka of haikoe (kort gedigte), ook bekend as waku, waarin die digter sy kreatiewe geestigheid (Engels wit, afgelei van die Angel-Saksiese witan, ‘weet’) ten toon stel, en Okri se nuwer kunsvorm, die stoku. Die kern van die artikel is ‘n kort analise van ‘n aantal van Okri se 13 rapsodieë in prosa, wat aantoon dat elke stoku ‘n oomblik van insig, visie of ‘n paradoks digterlik vasvang. In Okri se Tales of freedom onthul die mitiese samevloeiing van kortverhaal en haikoe tot nog toe verborge aspekte van die lewe. Deur hierdie innoverende medium, verwant aan blitsstories, kan die onbewuste onbekende wêrelde belig. Dit is soortgelyk aan die ervaring van serendipiteit, verwant aan innerlikheid en innerlike visie. Ten slotte word die digterlike (maar indirekte) serendipiteit in die gekose stoku aangedui.
Keyword: Ben Okri; haiku; literary humanities; new directions in the humanities; stoku; storytelling; Tales of Freedom
Upon first glance, two-story buildings constructed in brick and stone in coastal Ghana appear to be British colonial homes. However, though their façades were inspired by British styles, these early colonial period residences were actually built for Africans. Russell House, completed in 1898, manifests a deliberately constructed hybrid style of architecture combining local elements—asymmetry, a courtyard plan and two-story compact massing—with the British Italianate style and Afro-Portuguese sobrado plan. The motivations for such cultural appropriations are complex and require a deep understanding of the social, political and economic contexts in which the houses were built in Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast. An examination of this new style exemplified in the Russell House will demonstrate how coastal elite architecture reflects status, modernity, and resistance to British colonization.
History of Africa, African languages and literature