Academic literature on the topic 'Africa, West'

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, May, 2020<br>Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 27-32).<br>Sub-Saharan Africa faces significant challenges to its food security in the coming decades as climate change and rapid population growth strains its agricultural systems. In a region where crops are near exclusively rainfed, precipitation from the West African Monsoon (WAM) plays a significant role in the region's food production. This study aims to add to the limited literature on the relationship between country-level maize yields and the WAM, particularly through the use of high resolution precipitation estimates to characterize the spatiotemporal variability of the monsoon. Multi-year annual precipitation characteristics of the monsoon such as total precipitation, number of non-precipitating days, and timing were derived and aggregated across the maize growing regions of West African countries. Aggregated precipitation metrics were linearly regressed against country-level maize yields that have undergone timeseries analysis to remove trends occurring independently of the WAM. The metrics most correlated with maize yields while maintaining statistically significant slopes were the minimum of total precipitation, standard deviation of the number of non-precipitating days, and the minimum monsoon end date. The strong positive correlations of the minimum of total precipitation and minimum monsoon end date metrics suggest that the worst performing areas in terms of total precipitation and monsoon end date drive down annual country-level maize yields. The positive correlation found using the standard deviation of the number of non-precipitating days is uninterpretable as an instance of Simpson's paradox, as the opposite relationship is discovered in analyses using individual countries. These results show the efficacy of analyzing maize yields against satellite mapped precipitation characteristics of the WAM.<br>by Janice Shiu.<br>S.B.<br>S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

According to Domowitz (1992), the Agni women of Cote d'Ivoire assign proverbs and aphorisms as names to wax-dyed cloth. Women then use the imagery and associated proverbs behind cloth names to send non-verbal messages they would otherwise be unable to express publicly. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to investigate wax-dyed cloth names including their underlying meanings and uses given by women in Cote d'Ivoire and Togo; and second, to investigate how these names are acquired in French by women who have no formal education. Qualitative results revealed that women in these two countries are very motivated to learn cloth names. New undocumented names and their underlying meanings were also found. Some of these meanings were found to be educational; others are used to maintain status or to clarify power relationships. At the same time, quantitative results indicated that knowledge and use of cloth names in both communities studied is in decline.

This timely book explores the troubled intertwining of religion, medicine, empire, and race relations in the early nineteenth century. John Rankin analyzes the British use of medicine in West Africa as a tool to usher in a “softer” form of imperialism, considers how British colonial officials, missionaries, and doctors regarded Africans, and explores the impact of race classification on colonial constructs. Rankin goes beyond contemporary medical theory, examining the practice of medicine in colonial Africa as Britons dealt with the challenges of providing health care to their civilian employees, African soldiers, and the increasing numbers of freed slaves in the general population, even while the imperialists themselves were threatened by a lack of British doctors and western medicines. As Rankin writes, “The medical system sought to not only heal Africans but to ‘uplift’ them and make them more amenable to colonial control . . . Colonialism starts in the mind and can be pushed on the other solely through ideological pressure.”<br>https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1089/thumbnail.jpg

Adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports of countries varies due to differences in the prevalence of diseases and hence the types of drugs used. ADRs are a major health and economic burden worldwide. National health authorities monitor the safety of medicines to protect consumers from the hazards of drugs. ADR databases are also maintained from where reports are regularly evaluated to detect signals of new ADRs and determine the increase of those already known. A review of paediatric and general population studies conducted on ADRs from national ADR databases was carried out. The majority of studies identified were from countries in Europe and North America, and only one study on the general population was conducted from the Ethiopian ADR database in Africa. No paediatric study was identified in Africa. Skin reactions associated with antiretroviral drugs were the most frequent ADRs in the study conducted from the Ethiopian ADR database. Anti-infective agents, mostly vaccines, were mostly associated with the ADRs in children in Europe and Latin America, and drugs used for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) were implicated with the ADRs reported for children in North America. The ADR databases of Ghana and Nigeria were analysed to evaluate the ADRs reported for children and adults. The fatalities reported and the associated drugs in the two databases were also evaluated. The ADR reporting rates for children and the general population in Ghana and Nigeria were lower than the corresponding rates observed in the review. The majority of the ADRs in Nigerian adults were reported for antiretroviral drugs, and most of those who died suffered Stevens Johnson syndrome with antimalarials as the suspect drugs. ADRs reported for Nigerian children were mainly skin reactions associated with antibiotics. Most of the reported fatalities resulted from renal failure, linked with suspected contaminated teething mixtures. Antimalarials and anthelmintics were mostly associated with the ADRs in Ghanaian adults. Most of the reported fatalities resulted from Stevens Johnson syndrome. ADRs in Ghanaian children were mostly associated with vaccines. The majority of the reported deaths resulted from unknown causes linked with antimalarials.