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Non-consensual sterilisation is not only a historic abuse. Cases of unethical treatment of women around the time of a pregnancy continue in the Twenty-First Century in five continents. Sterilisation is being carried out by some healthcare professionals at the time of delivery, or soon afterwards, without valid consent. A range of contemporary examples of such practices is given. Respecting women's autonomy should be the touchstone of the consent process. Avoidance of force, duress, deception and manipulation should go without saying. Ethnic minority communities and women living with HIV, in particular, are being targeted for this kind of abuse. Attempts have been made in various countries and by international professional organisations to introduce clinical guidelines to steer health professionals away from this malpractice. Survivors have sought justice in domestic and international courts. This paper critically assesses the evidence on the practical, ethical and legal issues around the handling of consent for these procedures. Suggestions are made about possible regulatory responses that address abuse, whilst maintaining access for those individuals who freely elect to undergo these procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research capacity enhancement is needed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for improved health, wellbeing, and health systems' development. In this article, we discuss two capacity-building projects, the African/Asian Regional Capacity Development (ARCADE) in Health Systems and Services Research (HSSR) and Research on Social Determinants of Health (RSDH), implemented from 2011 to 2015. The two projects focussed on providing courses in HSSR and social determinants of health research, and on developing collaborations between universities, along with capacity in LMIC universities to manage research grant submissions, financing, and reporting. Both face-to-face and sustainable online teaching and learning resources were used in training at higher postgraduate levels (Masters and Doctoral level). Design: We collated project meeting and discussion minutes along with project periodic reports and deliverables. We extracted key outcomes from these, reflected on these in discussions, and summarised them for this paper. Results: Nearly 55 courses and modules were developed that were delivered to over 920 postgraduate students in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Junior researchers were mentored in presenting, developing, and delivering courses, and in preparing research proposals. In total, 60 collaborative funding proposals were prepared. The consortia also developed institutional capacity in research dissemination and grants management through webinars and workshops. Discussion: ARCADE HSSR and ARCADE RSDH were comprehensive programmes, focussing on developing the research skills, knowledge, and capabilities of junior researchers. One of the main strengths of these programmes was the focus on network building amongst the partner institutions, where each partner brought skills, expertise, and diverse work cultures into the consortium. Through these efforts, the projects improved both the capacity of junior researchers and the research environment in Africa, Asia, and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing the HRM practices in Indian and European MNE subsidiaries located in four of the Southern African Development Community countries, this paper tests the relevance of the country-of-origin effect and analyses the strength of institutional and firm-level influences. Examining data from 865 MNE subsidiaries obtained from the World Bank enterprise survey data, the paper finds that Indian MNEs have higher labour costs in relation to total sales than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs make more use of temporary labour than their European counterparts, that Indian MNEs invest in less training than their European counterparts. No support is found for the hypothesis that Indian MNEs have a lower ratio of skilled workers in comparison to European-owned subsidiaries. The study shows that country-of-origin effects are weakened if they are not consistent with host country ideology and that as economies evolve so too do their expectations of HR policy and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As international relations actors in the post-Second World War world, international organisations have played a significant role in the standardisation of global policy concepts during the 20th century, and humanitarian assistance has been no exception. While the study of the role of international organisations in shaping a dominant model of humanitarian aid has recently gathered pace, few historians have focused on different, less successful models and interpretations developed by other international organisations. Recently declassified Commonwealth Secretariat records show that discussions within the Secretariat and among member states regarding the potential objectives and scope of Commonwealth humanitarian assistance programmes took place as early as the 1960s, and continued throughout the following decades. This article provides an overview of the origin and evolution of the Commonwealth’s approach to humanitarian assistance since the 1960s. Its objective is to document this hitherto little known aspect of Commonwealth assistance policies, and, based on an initial literature and archival survey, to contribute to the identification of further research questions and gaps in this aspect of Commonwealth history. Although they are very different in nature and scope, the Commonwealth and the European Union share at least one common feature in so far as humanitarian assistance is concerned, namely their difficulty in reaching a consensual definition of it. By exploring the links and discrepancies between, as well as within, each organisation’s approach to humanitarian assistance, and by examining the initiatives of some of their member states, this paper seeks to highlight the plasticity of the definition of humanitarian assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the relationship between military expenditure and FDI inflow conditioning on the exposure of a country to armed conflict in the long run. We apply the band spectrum regression estimator, and the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform, to a panel of 60 developing countries, for the years 1990 to 2013. The estimated results indicate that military expenditure, in the absence of armed conflict, reduces FDI inflow. However, the negative effect is mitigated by increased military expenditure, in the presence of armed conflict. We also show that the effect of military expenditure on FDI is time sensitive, in that it takes time for military expenditure to affect FDI inflow. FDI inflow in response to higher military expenditure is higher for the country that faces higher armed conflict than the country that faces lower armed conflict. The findings are robust in the case of overall as well as internal conflict. These results are also robust to the alternative specification, subsample analysis with different armed conflict thresholds, and the estimation using the time variant long-run models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In West and Northern Africa, mobile phone coverage has been expanding parallely to increased attempts by Africans to migrate overland to Europe. This paper explores possible links between the two phenomena, looking specifically into the role of mobile phones in trans-Saharan migration. It provides a first detailed description of the telecommunication processes underlying contemporary trans-Saharan migration. An analytical framework is presented that helps to explain how mobile phones facilitate migration by interacting with the social and spatial factors shaping migrants' mobility. By drawing on this framework and fieldwork conducted among Congolese migrants in Morocco, it is shown that the expansion of the communication infrastructure is, on the one hand, only one of several factors that have turned the region into a more “transitable” space. On the other hand, the use of mobile phones is demonstrated to be central to the migration process: migrants draw on the unprecedented accessibility of contacts equipped with mobile phones to tie together novel, geographically expansive networks. Phones are also shown to be used by migrants' “helpers” for the purpose of internal coordination. Thomas Molony is the accepting Guest Editor for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his travel journal classic, L'Afrique fantome (1934), after a year of travel through sub-Saharan Africa, the French writer and ethnographer Michel Leiris listed a group of texts under the simple heading 'African imagery'. The author never explicates the meanings of the imagery thereby giving the reader the opportunity to reflect on their possible implications, or to leave them as they are. The aim of this paper is to examine the indications of this heterogeneous list, and its framing in the travel journal, as a palimpsest that states itself, but that also has the potential to call into question the writer's prior knowledge of Africa. Moreover, the paper sets the list's contents in relation to Leiris's other writings so as to tease out some finer implications of the specific textual 'ambience' to which the author refers as he presents the inventory of African imagery to his reading public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a socio-literary investigation of the East African Asian diasporic experience. To this end, it closely examines selected texts that offer insights into the complicated socio-cultural relationships at the interstices of the colonial histories of the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Europe. It also looks at how gendered participation is articulated from within the larger body of a collective history. Finally, the paper reviews steps taken by contemporary Asian-Africans to take stock of their shared past, as a part of larger political project for the recognition of a hitherto minoritised group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is a giant market with a population of Europe and Japan combined, and highly diversified with respect to culture, natural resources, economic development, and political regimes. Yet, the continent is largely ignored with respect to research on the multinational activities of U.S. firms. In this paper, we provide the first evidence regarding the operating characteristics of U.S. firms that operate in Africa. We find that firms with operations in Africa are larger, more diversified, and more profitable than a matched control sample of multinational firms. This paper also shows that technology firms, manufacturing firms, and mining firms dominate the rest of companies operating in Africa. Certain geographical regions in Africa also seem to attract more companies than others, with Southern Africa being the most preferred region, while Central Africa is the least preferred. Finally, when a multinational firm invests in a specific country in Africa, it tends to do so in several business sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Growing demand for Global Health (GH) training and the internationalisation of education requires innovative approaches to training. Blended learning (BL, a form of e-learning combining face-to-face or real-time interaction with computer-assisted learning) is a promising approach for increasing GH research capacity in low- to middle-income countries. Implementing BL, however, requires additional skills and efforts from lecturers. This paper explores lecturers' views and experiences of delivering BL courses within the context of two north-south collaborative research capacity building projects, ARCADE HSSR and ARCADE RSDH. Design: We used a qualitative approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of 11 lecturers involved in designing and delivering BL courses collaboratively across university campuses in four countries (South Africa, Uganda, India and Sweden). Data were collected using interviews in person or via Skype. Inductive qualitative content analysis was used. Results: Participants reported that they felt BL increased access to learning opportunities and made training more flexible and convenient for adult learners, which were major motivations to engage in BL. However, despite eagerness to implement and experiment with BL courses, they lacked capacity and support, and found the task time consuming. They needed to make compromises between course objectives and available technological tools, in the context of poor Internet infrastructure. Conclusions: BL courses have the potential to build bridges between low- and middle-income contexts and between lecturers and students to meet the demand for GH training. Lecturers were very motivated to try these approaches but encountered obstacles in implementing BL courses. Considerable investments are needed to implement BL and support lecturers in delivering courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar thermal power is a promising ‘green’ technology that could contribute significantly – in countries where it may be applicable due to available resources – towards meeting the 2020 and 2050 targets for the free energy production of emissions [Viebahn, P., Lechon, Y., and Trieb, F., 2011. The potential role of concentrated solar power (CSP) in Africa and Europe – a dynamic assessment of technology development, cost development and life cycle inventories until 2050.Energy Policy, 39 (8), 4420–4430]. Especially for the regions where solar radiation is significant, the technology of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants seems to have a great potential, once cost-related issues are resolved. The thermodynamic process, on which the component design of the plant is based, plays a significant role in the optimisation of the efficiency of the derived configuration. This paper aims to present a route for the design of thermodynamic cycles for a CSP, starting from the simplest processes and heading towards more complicated ones. For a reference output capacity, the obtained efficiencies are presented, illustrating the technical benefits of shifting to more advanced thermodynamic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article notes international serials and electronic resource management news for July 1, 2012. The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services' Continuing Resources Section presented the Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award to Valerie Bross. The North American Serials Interest Group's newly elected officers include Joyce Tenney, Shana McDonald, and Chris Brady. The Library of Congress' Bibliographic Framework Initiative General Plan is on its website at http://www.loc.gov/marc/transition/pdf/bibframework-10312011.pdf.

This paper analyses the integration of Africa in the global labour market of football through the study of players' migrations to Asia and Europe. The presence of African footballers in the latter continent is analysed via a statistical survey carried out in September and October 2008 on a sample of 456 top division clubs in 30 European countries. The article emphasizes that the aspirations placed on football by male African youth, as a means of upward social mobility, are often too high when compared to the harsh realities of a transfer market based on commercial logics, which each year push many footballers away from the professional game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on migrants examines what makes them ill. Inspired by Antonovsky's salutogenic approach, this study shifts the perspective and asks why migrants stay healthy. At the centre of interest are sub-Saharan Africans living in Switzerland who consider themselves and/or are considered by others as mastering problems affecting their health. The mixed Swiss-African research team explored meanings of health and resilience in 20 case studies in Zurich and Basel and five group discussions in Bern, Biel and Geneva. The data show that migrants with resilient trajectories have a dynamic and multi-dimensional understanding of health. Moreover, they have learnt to interpret difficulties as 'stress': a popular illness concept in Switzerland and Europe but less known in their home countries. The paper argues that resilience is closely related with the appropriation of 'stress' as an illness concept: it not only gives meaning and helps to explain diffuse symptoms of ill-health, it also offers an agenda for action and contributes to their feeling of social belonging in the host country. These findings have important implications for policy and practice in the rapidly changing field of migration and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the special issue entitled ‘Africa<>Europe: Transnational Linkages, Multi-Sited Lives’ outlines the history of the African migrant presence in Europe, gives an account of the contexts which shape contemporary migration, and surveys the approaches to international migration from Africa which have influenced researchers since the 1960s. Linking the contributions to the special issue is the theme of migrants’ transnational ‘double engagement’ with both Africa and Europe. The paper examines this theme across three domains of the lived experience of African migrants and refugees in Europe: ‘Livelihoods’, ‘Families’, and ‘Identities’. We conclude with an assessment of what can be learned (theoretically and methodologically) from the study of African transmigration, and suggest future lines of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is twofold. It aims first to provide a critical overview of the literature on the history of technology as it relates to colonialism, decolonization and development in the extra-European world during the 20th century. Second, it seeks to identify changing perspectives and emerging research issues in the history of technology in the European colonies and ex-colonies of Asia and Africa, and thus to trace a move away from earlier ‘diffusionist’ arguments and discussion of polarization and conflict between ‘Western’ and ‘indigenous’ technologies, toward a more interactive, culturally-nuanced, multi-sited debate about how technology functions within specific parameters of time, place and culture. Body, land and state are identified as major ‘triangulation’ points for the critical investigation and contextualization of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the past and present of the approximately 80 slave trade-related structures erected by Europeans on the shores of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Built between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, these monuments bear testimony to a shameful commerce in human beings, one that served to inextricably link the fate of peoples of three continents: Africa, the Americas and Europe. The meaning of these monuments remains powerful, bringing to Ghana and the slave forts a stream of tourists, primarily from Europe and the Americas, on a pilgrimage to view the virtual history of buyers, sellers and victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advocacy is one of the core functions of public health and is a key tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Public health associations play a key role in advocating for the development and implementation of strategies to prevent diseases and promote health and well-being. This study aims to map out the focus of public health advocacy carried out by selected national public health associations over 4 years, between 2018 and 2021, in order to identify gaps and strengths and support associations and professionals in their advocacy efforts. Twelve national public health associations participated in the study. Official policy documents produced between 2018 and 2021 were collected and analysed. The title and summary of the policy documents were examined line by line and coded into the main subject categories and themes. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Policies were assessed from global and regional perspectives. A total of 220 policy documents were analysed. Overall, the largest number of policy documents came from high-income countries and dealt with environmental health and communicable diseases, including COVID-19, with, however, important differences among regions. In the African region, public health advocacy focused mainly on strengthening health systems; Europe and South America were mostly concerned with communicable diseases and pandemic management; and North America and the Western Pacific regions focused primarily on climate change. Limited attention was paid to international health and health as a human right in all regions. Our study showed that, especially in high-income countries, public health associations actively engage in advocacy; however, more effort needs to be devoted to implementing a more international and intersectoral approach at the global level, anchored in health as a human right and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant health workers fill care gaps in their destination countries, but they also actively engage in improving living conditions for people of their countries of origin through expatriate professional networks. This paper aims to explore the professional links that migrant health workers from sub-Saharan African countries living in five African and European destinations (Botswana, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, and the United Kingdom) have to their countries of origin. Qualitative interviews were conducted with migrant doctors, nurses, and midwives from sub-Saharan Africa (N=66). A qualitative content analysis of the material was performed using the software ATLAS.ti. Almost all migrant health workers have professional ties with their countries of origin supporting health, education, and social structures. They work with non-governmental organizations, universities, or hospitals and travel back and forth between their destination country and country of origin. For a few respondents, professional engagement or even maintaining private contacts in their country of origin is difficult due to the political situation at home. The results show that African migrant health workers are actively engaged in improving living conditions not only for their family members but also for the population in general in their countries of origin. Our respondents are mediators and active networkers in a globalized and transnationally connected world. The research suggests that the governments of these countries of origin could strategically use their migrant health workforce for improving education and population health in sub-Saharan Africa. Destination countries should be reminded of their need to comply with the WHO Global Code of Practice for the international recruitment of health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African migration to Europe is commonly seen as a tidal wave of desperate people fleeing poverty and warfare at home trying to enter the elusive European el Dorado. Typical 'solutions' proposed by politicians include increasing border controls or boosting African 'stay-at-home' development. However, such apocalyptic views are based on fundamentally flawed assumptions about the (limited) magnitude, historicity, nature and causes of this migration. Dominant discourses obscure the fact that African migration to Europe and Libya is fuelled by a structural demand for cheap migrant labour in informal sectors. This explains why restrictive immigration policies have invariably failed to stop migration and have had various perverse effects. African development is also unlikely to curb migration as it will enable and inspire more people to migrate. Despite lip service being paid to 'combating illegal migration' for political and diplomatic reasons, neither European nor African states have much genuine interest in stopping migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to World Travel and Tourism Council estimates, travel and tourism should account for approximately 10.4 percent of global gross domestic product and create nearly 231 million jobs worldwide during 2007. This paper presents an analysis of the performance of the global lodging industry during the year 2007. As such, important lodging industry trends worldwide, including those in North America, mainland Europe, United Kingdom, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions, are better understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The theme of love has long been neglected in studies on African myths. The often-heard explanation is that African myths and folktales do not tell stories about love because they primarily express social interests and obligations while love – intended as both emotional imperative and biological drive – is an individual need and feeling. This latter definition relies on a very specific understanding of ‘love’: the Romantic love of 19th century European novels. This paper argues that when love means attraction, affection, passion, and necessity, it turns up as liaisons dangereuses in many African narratives. Love becomes a driving force that generates gender constructions by reinforcing the unity of the couple or by fuelling the struggle between partners. In the case of Kabyle narratives (Algeria), 1 [1] Kabylia is a mountainous area in the north-west of Algeria. Linguistically and culturally it is a rather homogeneous area: Kabyles are Muslim and speak Taqbaylit, one of the several local forms of Tamazight, the Berber language, spoken in Algeria, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, and Tunisia. In Algeria approximately 20–25 percent of the population speaks Berber, while the majority of the population speaks Arabic, the official language. Islam was adopted in North Africa starting from the latter half of the seventh century. conceptualisations of love as well as the relationships between myths and folktales are explored by analyzing formula tales 2 [2] The genre usually translated into English as ‘folktale’ or ‘legend’ and in French as conte, conte merveilleux, or légende takes in Berber different names depending on the local language, for example tamacahuţ in Kabylia (Algeria) and tanfus in the Rif (Morocco). The presence of formulas of beginning and ending is characteristic, for example the expression macahu! (‘a story!’) which gives the name to this type of tale in Kabylia. I therefore use the denomination ‘formula tales’ (, pp. 104–118). and the only known collection of Kabyle Berber myths: those collected by Leo Frobenius, ethnologist and historian of religion, at the beginning of the 20th century and published in the first volume of his Volksmärchen der Kabylen in 1921. The discussion of the relationship between Kabyle myths and folktales touches upon a well-known interpretative problem in the study of religion: the articulation of myth and ritual with history as communities respond to sweeping social, political, and religious changes, such as the coming of Islam, colonization, decolonization, and globalization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Concentrating on terrorism in West Germany, Italy, and the Basque provinces of Spain, the author presents a detailed picture of the motivations, the strategies, and the "achievements" of a number of the best known groups which for alleged political purposes take the law into theft own hands. The Red Armee Faction, perhaps the best known West German terrorist group, and the 2nd of June Movement as well as such organizations as the Revolutionary Cells and the Guerilla Diffusa are described and their aims and activities are scrutinized. German right-wing terrorism is also shown to wield great power, its contacts with terrorists in Lebanon and Algeria rivaling those of leftist organizations. Italian terrorism, is also fully covered in this paper, with the activities of the Red Brigades, the best-known of the leftist organizations, and its international connections, as well as other groups and the individuals involved being dealt with in some detail. The events in Spain, past and present, due especially to Basque terrorism, are considered, and the Soviet influence, represented by terrorist organizations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa,. and Cuba, is discussed as is also the outlook for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the experience of two years of working with migrants residing in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Three different groups, with participants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, students, migrants and asylum seekers, converged in three different spaces and frameworks. A total of 51 participants, six men and 41 women between 20 and 50 years of age, took part in spontaneous movement workshops to promote their health, body awareness and well-being, the strengthening of affective bonds and creativity. The impact of the sessions was assessed through an anonymous survey, a semi-structured interview and a facilitator's diary of the sessions. The settings of the three groups were not identical and, thus, did not allow for a comparison between them. However, the results showed that the sessions helped participants to increase their sense of well-being and confidence, facilitate their integration process and strengthen their bonds with other participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional consumption of edible insects is common in one third of the world's population, mostly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. There are over one thousand identified species of insects eaten in some stage of their life cycle; and they play important roles in ensuring food security. The most common way to collect insects are from the wild, which is seasonal with limited availability and has an increasing demand resulting in a disruption to the ecosystem. There is a growing interest shown in rearing insects for commercial purposes, and an industrial scale production will be required to ensure steady supplies. Industrial production will need to take into account the living environment of insects, the nutritional composition of their feed and the overall efficiency of the production system. We provide a short overview on the consumption of and rearing insects in Africa, Asia and Europe. For Africa, a snapshot is given for Nigeria, Ghana, Central African Republic, Kenya and Uganda, while the following countries are reported for Asia: China, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, a list of insect species with the highest potential for food and feed in the European Union is provided with some reference to The Netherlands and Finland. The review concludes that there is need to better understand the rearing and farming procedures that will yield high quality edible insects in Africa, Asia and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a global demand for rehabilitation services but to date little attention has been paid to rehabilitation as part of the health agenda, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of the scoping review was to get an overview of the needs and unmet needs for rehabilitation services described in the literature. Materials and methods: Electronic search was performed in PubMed and REHABDATA for studies published between 2000 and 2017. Results: Eighty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. Results revealed a profound need for rehabilitation among different user groups with non-communicable diseases and injuries across countries. However, this need considerably outstripped the provision of services, which left many people with substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation. The main reasons for the unmet needs for rehabilitation were the absence of or unequal geographical distribution of services within a country, lack of transportation, and unaffordability of the services. Conclusions: There are substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation and numerous barriers to accessing services. Efforts need to focus on building the capacity for rehabilitation research predominantly in low- and middle-income countries. The comprehensive data that this review provides is useful for raising awareness for the need of rehabilitation at policy level. There is a profound need for rehabilitation services due to the ageing population and growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases. This scoping review shows that the need for rehabilitation considerably outstrips the provision of services. There are substantial unmet needs for rehabilitation and numerous barriers to accessing services. Concerted global action to scale up quality rehabilitation services is needed, especially in low- and middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is estimated that up to a third of injuries requiring emergency department (ED) admission are alcohol-related. While injuries that are alcohol-related are unsurprising to ED staff, less is understood about the precursors to the injury event. Methods: Using data from representative ED injury patients in 22 countries, we examined associations between context of injury (private or public), cause of injury (fall or trip, being stuck/cut/or burned and violence) and alcohol use. Alcohol-related policy data were also obtained from each study locale. Results: Injuries were similarly reported in private (54%) and public settings (46%), while cause of injury was most often due to falls (39%) or being struck/cut or burned (38%). Violence-related injuries were reported by approximately 1 in 5 patients (23%). Increased odds of drinking prior to the injury event was associated with injury due to violence in private settings but not public venues. Similarly, patients from regions with fewer restrictive alcohol policies were more likely to report drinking prior to an injury event and have elevated violence-related injuries in private settings. Conclusion: Understanding the cause and context of injury and alcohol use are important components to evaluation and development of alcohol policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative project is focused on the challenges that newcomer athletes revealed when they considered their earliest encounters with a receiving culture during general daily life. Conversational interviews with 24 national and international amateur newcomer athletes were subjected to interpretive thematic analysis and developed into a composite vignette. This vignette unearths three themes revealing hope (theme: opportunities abound); uncertainty and fear (theme: weighing the risks for the journey ahead); and anger, humiliation, and hardening (theme: public stonings). Understanding the fluidities within the vignette will permit practitioners to explore the uncertainties of acculturation and find entry points to support athlete acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: As blended learning (BL; a combination of face-to-face and e-learning methods) becomes more commonplace, it is important to assess whether students find it useful for their studies. ARCADE HSSR and ARCADE RSDH (African Regional Capacity Development for Health Systems and Services Research; Asian Regional Capacity Development for Research on Social Determinants of Health) were unique capacity-building projects, focusing on developing BL in Africa and Asia on issues related to global health. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the student experience of participating in any of five ARCADE BL courses implemented collaboratively at institutions from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Design: A post-course student survey with 118 students was conducted. The data were collected using email or through an e-learning platform. Data were analysed with SAS, using bivariate and multiple logistic regression. We focused on the associations between various demographic and experience variables and student-reported overall perceptions of the courses. Results: In total, 82 students responded to the survey. In bivariate logistic regression, the course a student took [p=0.0067, odds ratio (OR)=0.192; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.058-0.633], male gender of student (p=0.0474, OR=0.255; 95% CI: 0.066-0.985), not experiencing technical problems (p<0.001, OR=17.286; 95%CI: 4.629-64.554), and reporting the discussion forum as adequate for student needs (p=0.0036,OR=0.165; 95%CI: 0.049-0.555) were found to be associated with a more positive perception of BL, as measured by student rating of the overall helpfulness of the e-learning component to their studies. In contrast, perceiving the assessment as adequate was associated with a worse perception of overall usefulness. In a multiple regression, the course, experiencing no technical problems, and perceiving the discussion as adequate remained significantly associated with a more positively rated perception of the usefulness of the online component of the blended courses. Discussion: The results suggest that lack of technical problems and functioning discussion forums are of importance during BL courses focusing on global health-related topics. Through paying attention to these aspects, global health education could be provided using BL approaches to student satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrant men who have sex with men (MSM) are vulnerable to HIV. In the last decade, several rapid HIV-testing facilities targeting MSM have been established around the world and seem popular among immigrants. This study analyzes factors contributing to immigrant MSM's use of Actuel sur Rue (AsR), a community-based rapid HIV-testing site in Montreal's gay village, where 31% of clients are immigrants. From October 2013 to January 2014, AsR staff compiled a list of new clients born outside of Canada. With their consent, 40 immigrant MSM were reached among these new clients for a 15-minute phone survey entailing open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The survey sought immigrant MSM's reasons for visiting AsR; satisfaction with service and staff; and open comments. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative data, and descriptive statistics were produced with the quantitative data. The qualitative findings indicate that the main reasons for seeking an HIV test were a recent risk, routine testing, or being in a new relationship. Clients chose AsR mainly because it is easily accessible, service is fast or they heard about it from a friend. The quantitative findings indicate that rates of satisfaction were high (over 90% were satisfied about all aspects except for openings hours) and more than 80% felt comfortable while receiving services at AsR. Nevertheless, this study's findings have implications for improving services. They stress the importance of offering rapid yet comprehensive service and of taking into account immigrant MSM's concerns for confidentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines German public service broadcasting and its message for African female audiences. It situates the activities of Deutsche Welle (DW) within public diplomacy theory and analyses the content of DW'sLearning by Earseries, which is geared towards young African women. The article investigates DW's view on gender and education in Africa and positions the broadcaster's activities within the broader context of the German and European Union's (EU) development assistance to the continent. Through critical discourse analysis, the article examines the broadcaster's perception of Africa. It argues that DW constructs a flattened, reductionist and often incorrect image of Africa. In its stories, Africa is depicted as a continent of harmful traditions that need to be abandoned, gender-biased schooling practices which are a product of regressive African communities, and women who are voiceless and powerless. The article concludes that although well intended, DW fails to grasp the complexities of African realities. Its broadcasts emerge as a series of culturally insensitive programmes that perpetuate well-worn stereotypes. Supported by Germany's Federal Foreign Office and designed to dispose of ‘backward’ African traditions to make space for the ‘new’ and the ‘modern’, theLearning by Earseries echoes the language of themission civilisatriceof Africa's imperial past – something that contemporary development discourse has significantly moved away from. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims: The ternational urvey nforming reater Insigts in Opioid Dependence reatment (INSIGHT) study evaluated the implementation of opioid dependence treatment across different countries to assess treatment delivery, quality of care and outcomes. Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was used to gather data in nine countries across Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa and South-East Asia, from patients with opioid dependence receiving medication-assisted treatment (MAT), healthcare professionals (HCPs) who cared for opioid-dependent patients and opioid users not receiving MAT. Findings: There was substantial variation between countries, but overall results suggest that several aspects of MAT can be improved, such as access to treatment (conditions to start or remain in treatment), quality of care (availability/awareness of treatment options and appropriate medication dosing) and treatment outcomes (on-top use, misuse and diversion). Conclusions: This analysis highlights key priorities that should improve the quality of opioid dependence care and access to treatment. These priorities include: acknowledging opioid dependence as a chronic medical condition requiring long-term treatment; recognition by policymakers of the cost-effectiveness of treatment; making available, to those who want them, psychosocial interventions and educating HCPs to prescribe the safest, least divertible forms of medications available at optimal doses in order to reduce opioid use, misuse and diversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a former colonial power in Africa, Portugal has been a conspicuously neglected case in the contemporary academic literature on Europe–Africa relations. This article explores Portugal's role in European Union (EU) relations with Africa, focusing on the issue of political conditionality. The analysis considers how active Portugal has been at the EU level regarding that controversial issue and to what extent Lisbon has tried to mediate between its European partners and Africa. Taking into account the limited contributions on the topic, this article makes great use of primary sources and takes a long-term perspective. The findings show that Portugal's general stance was mainly reactive and cautious. However, Portuguese policy-makers ingeniously used intra-EU pressures towards conditionality to highlight Portugal's conciliatory position and buttress a bridging role between Europe and Africa. This study contributes to the literature on Portuguese foreign policy in the EU–Africa context and provides useful insights for other studies on smaller EU member states as well as Europe–Africa relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study that determines ways on how to effectively manage children with Wilms tumor in Africa and Europe. It offers information on the number of children affected by the disease in both regions and the offers overview of the principles of treatment and supportive care adopted to address the condition. It also mentions the challenges associated with the treatment of the disease and proposes the importance of supportive care programs to ensure effective management.

Love Peace’s story spans two continents: Europe and Africa. Her story begins in her home country of Africa. Thorough her story, we see the different perspectives taken by her family, community and mental health professionals in the UK and in Africa. We see the challenges posed by moving between different countries and balancing the demands of two cultures in the UK. Two religions play an important role in Love Peace’s life, both as restrictive and supportive factors. Love Peace’s role as a mother is critical to both her difficulties and her recovery. Ultimately, Love Peace’s story is one of reclaiming hope for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa was for a long time considered to be Europe's backyard. This situation since the turn of the century has changed considerably. With new actors pursuing their own economic interests, mainly representing the growing influence of so-called emerging economies, new multipolar realities have arrived on the continent. Access to and control over natural resources has entered a new stage of competition among external actors and in their interaction with local elites. Africa has changed as an arena, and realities are increasingly shaped by Chinese influence too. This overview on recent contributions to the debate summarises the current assessments of the degree, impact and effects of the Chinese economic expansion. It then reflects on the potential new scope for cooperation and development and ends with some conclusions on the possible options and opportunities this might offer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many contemporary societies, multiple functions are connected to hunting. Here, we use the concept of multifunctionality to investigate the role of hunting beyond its traditional function of supplying meat. Hunting may contribute, for example, to biodiversity conservation, recreation and the preservation of economies and cultures in rural areas. Our comparative analysis of hunting in eight study sites in Europe and Africa examines the tensions and trade-offs between these ecological, economic and social functions of hunting, and investigates the interplay between the institutions regulating these functions to better understand conflicts over hunting. Based on this analysis, we present institutional arrangements that have developed to address these challenges of multifunctionality, and explore the institutional change brought about by such arrangements. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study for policy and institutional design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article, by providing an overall assessment of the relations between Africa and the EU since the adoption of the Joint Africa Europe Strategy in Lisbon in 2007, tests the hypothesis of a ‘continental drift’. It looks in particular at four key variables in the relationship: economy, development, governance and politics, and multilateralism. A continental drift is in the making, associated with widening cracks in economic blocks: most of the trade between the two continents is concentrated on a dozen countries on each side. Although the EU has lost some of its leadership in development policies, its funding capacities are still attractive for countries in need: the donor–recipient relation is largely maintained. Both sides have agreed to disagree or to remain quiet about their reciprocal political inconsistencies: the management of governance and political dialogue is thus carried out in a pragmatic manner. The continent-to-continent relationship remains largely a vision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the degree of price-integration of equity indices between the major markets of Africa, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa with the European markets of London and Paris. Vector Autoregressive and Autoregressive Distributed Lag methods reveal that African markets are largely price-segmented. The only markets that are price-integrated have shared economic and financial institutions, such as Namibia and South Africa, and Egypt, Tunisia and France. The evidence suggests that development policy should be focussed on enhancing existing institutions rather than embarking prematurely on regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay examines the history of the 'Eurafrican project' as it evolved from the Pan-European movement in the 1920s to its institutionalization in the European Economic Community (EEC) (i.e. today's EU) in the late 1950s. As shown in the essay, practically all of the visions, movements and concrete institutional arrangements working towards European integration during this period placed Africa's incorporation into the European enterprise as a central objective. As so much of the scholarly, political and journalistic accounts at the time testify, European integration was inextricably bound up with a Eurafrican project. According to the intellectual, political and institutional discourse on Eurafrica - or the fate of Europe's colonial enterprise - a future European community presupposed the transformation of the strictly national colonial projects into a joint European colonization of Africa. Indeed, there is strong evidence to suggest that these ideas were instrumental in the actual diplomatic and political constitution of the EEC, or of Europe as a political subject. The essay discusses the conspicuous absence of these matters from scholarship on European integration and its historical origins and trajectory. It also notes that it is equally neglected in postcolonial studies, which should be able to provide the theoretical and historical tools to engage with the complex and instructive issues with which the Eurafrican project and its intimate links to the history of European integration confront today's scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has been the privileged economic and political partner of Africa, but more recently China has increased its foothold in Africa through important financial investments and trade agreements. Against this backdrop, the empirical research conducted in 2007-08 in Kenya and South Africa as part of a pioneering international project investigates the perceptions of public opinion, political leaders, civil society activists and media operators. While confirming their continent's traditional proximity to Europe, African citizens are increasingly interested in China and its impact on Africa's development. Europe is criticised for not having been able to dismiss the traditionally 'patronising' attitude towards Africa. While African civil society leaders and media operators describe China as an opportunity for Africa to break free of its historical dependence on European markets, other opinion leaders warn against too much enthusiasm for the Asian giant. There is a suspicion that the Chinese strategy might, in the long run, turn into a new form of economic patronage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of Palaeolithic variability between eastern Asia and western portions of the Old World continue to engender controversial discussion. Most famously, debate has focused on variability in the absence/presence of 'handaxes' east and west of the so-called 'Movius Line'. However, it is becoming equally apparent that cross-regional contrasts can be made using categories of data other than handaxe presence/absence alone. This, in turn, is leading to a reconfiguration of the archaeological patterns that demand explanation. Here, we outline the current state of the Movius Line controversy in these terms, and undertake a series of metric analyses of eastern and western biface samples. This leads us to highlight specific lines of enquiry that may be important for future attempts to address these enduring questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This opening section briefly introduces international political party support, that is, assistance to political parties by international organizations, mostly from the US and Europe, to strengthen individual political parties, to promote peaceful interaction between parties and to help to create a more stable and democratic environment for political parties in new, struggling or flawed democracies. Before going on to introduce the contributions to this collection, this introduction discusses three major issues related to international support to political parties: the current 'party crisis' in young as well as in old democracies; the intrusive (political) nature of international party assistance; and the difficulties involved in assessing its effectiveness. Political parties seem much more difficult to work with than (other) political and civil society organizations. Subsequently, we will turn to the case studies, which focus on the former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and Africa, with excursions into Cambodia and El Salvador. Most of the contributions dwell on two contrasting country cases, and all of them combine attention to the state of political parties and party systems in their respective countries with the role played by international involvement and party support in particular. We will briefly present and discuss the major issues raised for international party support in the country studies, and try to formulate an answer to the question about where and when party support might make a meaningful contribution to supporting democratic transformation and consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at world-system inequalities before and after the economic crisis of 2007-2009. Understanding the notion of economic income inequality is considered significant when studying inequalities in the world system. A definition of international inequality is presented, referring to inequality across states due to differences in per capita income. A comparison between national and inter-regional inequalities is described. As national inequality centers on the distinction of income within a single state, inter-regional inequality, on the other hand, separates the world in large regional units including Western Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, North America, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Oceania.

Artist Ernest Mancoba has become, for many scholars, representative of the West's neglect of Africa. Mancoba left his native South Africa for Paris in 1938 and later became a founding member of the European art movement CoBrA. Yet Mancoba's relationship to CoBrA has been almost entirely erased from history. This article asks why Mancoba has been excluded from art historical texts on CoBrA, and explores three factors that may have resulted in his exclusion. First, this article argues that Mancoba was marginalised by CoBrA, whose founding ideology would have demanded that they view him as a 'primitive' Other. Second, it is likely that Mancoba sought to distinguish himself from the group in order to escape the colonial mentality that drove their artistic inspiration. Finally, the celebration of Mancoba as a pre-eminent 'South African artist' has caused his work to be ghettoised, celebrated as uniquely 'African' but denied the possibility of being understood in dialogue not with other African art but with European modernists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The encounter between Africa and Europe during the historical reality of the colonial and imperial enterprise has fashioned an elaborate corpus of knowledge systems. These knowledge systems have been produced and circulated by Europe as standard and they have become part of the European regime of universal truth-telling. Thus those who are defined as Others, and are marginal to the Empire, are constituted as outside of culture and civilisation. This asymmetrical construction of relations between the North and the South in terms of oppositional binaries and racial essentialisms is the furrow which Tayeb Salih elects to plough in Season of Migration to the North. The novel exists at the intersection of the colonized personality's rebellious engagement with the imperial enterprise as a way of visiting the violence which the colonised world was, and is still, a victim of against Europe. Situated within the contestatory site of postcolonial counter-hegemony, Salih's novel unveils the politics inherent in colonialist writing and the attempt by the postcolony to rupture some of these textual politics by revisioning the assumptions, biases and prejudices directed at the colonised subject. The novel is also self-critical as Salih uses it to condemn the postcolonial Sudanese and African condition as guilty of those 'germs' it accused the colonialists of. He suggests a hybrid ethos which enables a critical appreciation of the good in all cultures, an adaptive spirit as the way out of postcolonial quagmire in African nations and a multicultural consciousness among the peoples of all races for peace and harmony in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the chronology of the interwar decline of European influence and power, arguing that its origins outside Europe are to be found as much in the paradoxical status of international administration of colonial and post-colonial areas as in the direct challenges posed to European stability by revisionist states in the early 1930s. It demonstrates that an inherent ambivalence toward the interwar colonial world and its relationship to Europe presaged and conditioned the collapse of Europe's own balance of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contends that three key characteristics in the context of self-determination conflicts are crucial in determining the institutional design of their settlement: the compactness of groups' settlement patterns in a given state; the degree of ethnic heterogeneity in the territorial entities to which powers and competences of self-governance are to be assigned; and their significance relative to the rest of the state, leading to three core elements of institutional design that are variably present—territorial self-governance, and local and central power-sharing are variably part of conflict settlements. Examining 18 individual cases of post-Cold War conflict settlements across 13 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, the article finds these assumptions to be largely correct and concludes with a number of suggestions for further theoretical and empirical investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SYNOPSISStegosauria is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs characterised by a bizarre array of dermal armour extending, in two parasagittal rows, from the cervical region to the end of the tail. Although Stegosaurusis one of the most familiar of all dinosaurs, little is known regarding the evolutionary history of this clade.Alpha-level taxonomic revision of all proposed stegosaur taxa shows that 11 species of stegosaur can be regarded as valid on the basis of autapomorphies. These are: Dacentrurus armatusand Loricatosaurus priscus(gen. nov.) from Europe; Kentrosaurus aethiopicusand Paranthodon africanusfrom Africa; Tuojiangosaurus multispinus, Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis, Huayangosaurus taibaii, Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensisand Stegosaurus homheni(comb. nov.) from China; and Stegosaurus mjosi(comb. nov.) and Stegosaurus armatusfrom North America.A cladistic analysis of Stegosauria (the first to be based upon direct observation of all relevant specimens) is presented, which indicates that Tuojiangosaurus, Loricatosaurusand Paranthodonare sister taxa to Stegosaurus. Stegosaurinae can be defined as all stegosaurs more closely related to Stegosaurusthan to Dacentrurus; Stegosauridae is defined as all stegosaurs more closely related to Stegosaurusthan to Huayangosaurus; and Huayangosauridae can be defined as all stegosaurs more closely related to Huayangosaurusthan to Stegosaurus. This study is also the first phylogenetic analysis to include Gigantspinosaurus, which is recovered as the most basal stegosaur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brands build relationships between consumers and products, services, or lifestyles by providing beneficial exchanges and adding value to their objects. Brands can be measured through associations that consumers hold for products and services. Public health brands are the associations that individuals hold for health behaviors, or lifestyles that embody multiple health behaviors. We systematically reviewed the literature on public health brands; developed a methodology for describing branded health messages and campaigns; and examined specific branding strategies across a range of topic areas, campaigns, and global settings. We searched the literature for published studies on public health branding available through all relevant, major online publication databases. Public health branding was operationalized as any manuscripts in the health, social science, and business literature on branding or brands in health promotion marketing. We developed formalized decision rules and applied them in identifying articles for review. We initially identified 154 articles and reviewed a final set of 37, 10 from Africa, Australia, and Europe. Branded health campaigns spanned most of the major domains of public health and numerous communication strategies and evaluation methodologies. Most studies provided clear information on planning, development, and evaluation of the branding effort, while some provided minimal information. Branded health messages typically are theory based, and there is a body of evidence on their behavior change effectiveness, especially in nutrition, tobacco control, and HIV/AIDS. More rigorous research is needed, however, on how branded health messages impact specific populations and behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]