Comments on “Challenges Facing African Universities”

2004 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
William Saint
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African History ◽  
Valuable Resource ◽  
The Past ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Near Future

In tackling the topic of current challenges to African universities, Akilagpa Sawyerr has chosen to paint with a broad brush. While giving appropriate acknowledgment to the diversity and complexity of prevailing circumstances in each country, he has elected to focus on a limited number of important issues that he believes constitute, in varying degrees, common challenges to universities across the continent. In electing this approach, he shows a preference for illuminating the dynamic interrelationships among these challenges, and for situating them with regard to some of the larger economic and political forces that have shaped African history in the latter part of the twentieth century. In consequence, he necessarily foregoes in-depth analysis of specific issues. To provide such analysis would require a book, which I sincerely hope Prof. Sawyerr will undertake in the near future.What is valuable about this article? I would like to underscore three aspects.First, it provides a clear overview of the main challenges that have confronted African higher education, especially during the past decade, together with helpful interpretations of the causes and consequences of these events. It also incorporates much of the very recent explosion of research on this topic, particularly by African scholars. The bibliography itself is a valuable resource for those interested in the subject.

scholarly journals Haunted Walks of District Six: Propositions for Counter-Surveying

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780042110423
Author(s):  
Siddique Motala ◽  
Vivienne Bozalek
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information System ◽  
Geographic Information System ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
South African ◽  
African History ◽  
The Past ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Opening Up

This article traces a pedagogical trajectory in South African higher education that started in engineering education and leads to walking-as-research. Situated on District Six, a well-known site of apartheid forced removals, a cartographic and diffractive methodology is utilized to trace the development of this pedagogy, as well as walks that have emerged out of mapping the site by means of geographic information system (GIS). We develop propositions related to a practice we call counter-surveying, and we trace two walks of District Six with people who are connected to the site. Recognizing the hauntological power of walking, we walk into the past and diffractively read the walks together with South African history, geomatics education, and posthumanist theory. Premised on relational ontologies, we attend to the ghosts of District Six and explore different ways of interrogating issues of land and education, while opening up a space for Otherness.

scholarly journals Heterogeneity of SARS-CoV-2 virus produced in cell culture revealed by shotgun proteomics and supported by genome sequencing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Gallais ◽  
Olivier Pible ◽  
Jean-Charles Gaillard ◽  
Stéphanie Debroas ◽  
Hélène Batina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structure ◽  
Cell Culture ◽  
Shotgun Proteomics ◽  
Rapid Analysis ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Tandem Mass ◽  
The Past ◽  
Viral Particles ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Subject

AbstractCOVID-19 is the most disturbing pandemic of the past hundred years. Its causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been the subject of an unprecedented investigation to characterize its molecular structure and intimate functioning. While markers for its detection have been proposed and several diagnostic methodologies developed, its propensity to evolve and evade diagnostic tools and the immune response is of great concern. The recent spread of new variants with increased infectivity requires even more attention. Here, we document how shotgun proteomics can be useful for rapidly monitoring the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We evaluated the heterogeneity of purified SARS-CoV-2 virus obtained after culturing in the Vero E6 cell line. We found that cell culture induces significant changes that are translated at the protein level, such changes being detectable by tandem mass spectrometry. Production of viral particles requires careful quality control which can be easily performed by shotgun proteomics. Although considered relatively stable so far, the SARS-CoV-2 genome turns out to be prone to frequent variations. Therefore, the sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 variants from patients reporting only the consensus genome after its amplification would deserve more attention and could benefit from more in-depth analysis of low level but crystal-clear signals, as well as complementary and rapid analysis by shotgun proteomics. Graphical abstract

scholarly journals Māori Urban Migrations and Identities, ‘Ko Ngā Iwi Nuku Whenua’: A study of Urbanisation in the Wellington Region during the Twentieth Century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Erin Keenan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Migration Experiences

<p>Māori urbanisation and urban migrations have been the subject of much discussion and research, especially following World War Two when Māori individuals, whānau and communities increasingly became residents of towns and cities that were overwhelmingly Pākehā populated. However, Māori urbanisation experiences and urban migrations are difficult topics to address because kaumātua are reluctant to discuss ‘urban Māori’, especially considering its implications for Māori identities. The original contribution this thesis makes to histories of Māori urban migrations is that it explores these and other understandings of urbanisations to discover some of their historical influences. By discussing urbanisations directly with kaumātua and exploring historical sources of Māori living in, and moving to, the urban spaces of Wellington and the Hutt Valley through the twentieth century, this thesis is a ‘meeting place’ for a range of perspectives on the meanings of urbanisations from the past and the present. Although urbanisation was an incredible time of material change for the individuals and whānau who chose to move into cities such as Wellington, the histories of urban migration experiences exist within a scope of Māori and iwi worldviews that gave rise to multiple experiences and understandings of urbanisations. The Wellington region is used to show that Māori in towns and cities used Māori social and cultural forms in urban areas so that they could, through the many challenges of becoming urban-dwelling, ensure the persistence of their Māoritanga. Urbanisations also allowed Māori to both use traditional identities in urban areas, as well as develop new relationships modelled on kinship. The Ngāti Pōneke community is used as an example of the complex interactions between these identities and how many Māori became active residents in but not conceptually ‘of’ cities. As a result, the multiple and layered Māori identities that permeate throughout Māori experiences of the present and the past are important considerations in approaching and discussing urbanisations. Urban Māori communities have emphasised the significance of varied and layered Māori identities, and this became particularly pronounced through the Māori urban migrations of the twentieth century.</p>

Hizballah, Syria, and the Lebanese Elections

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Usher
Keyword(s):  
The Past ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject

The reason for Hizballah's poor showing in the recent Lebanese elections was the subject of speculation. Formed after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Hizballah acquired renown as a militia force against Israel. Since the 1992 Lebanese elections, it also has acquired a reputation as an effective opposition to the Hariri government, challenging Amal's hegemony over Lebanon's Shi'i community. The mobilization of Lebanon's main political forces against Hizballah in the elections has underscored the likelihood that Hizballah's role in the future will remain what it was in the past: less a domestic challenge to Amal and more a force for military resistance against Israel.

Closing remarks

1967 ◽  
Vol 299 (1456) ◽  
pp. 145-145 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Variational Method ◽  
Mode Interaction ◽  
Random Wave ◽  
Interaction Techniques ◽  
Dispersive Waves ◽  
Wave Fields ◽  
The Past ◽  
Interesting Discussion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Near Future

This has been a most interesting Discussion to attend, and will, I believe, in its written version, be a work of marked permanent value, especially because the contributors, as well as giving penetrating and comprehensive reviews of their own parts of the subject, have carefully elucidated also the relations between the parts. Methods apparently of very diverse character for analysing the nonlinear development of dispersive waves have been described. Although they have different areas of validity, there are regions of overlap between those areas, where contributors have taken pains to show that they give identical results. In particular, the relations between Whitham’s variational method, Brooke Benjamin’s stability analyses, the mode interaction techniques of Phillips and Longuet-Higgins, and Hasselmann’s work on random wave fields, have become much clearer, so that the advances of the past six years begin to form a coherent pattern. Some uncertainties, and many unsolved problems, remain; but comparisons of the existing theories with experiment have yielded such encouraging results, that many workers are likely to attempt further developments of them in the near future.

scholarly journals The Subject – A Key Element of the Fugue Form during the 20th Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-179
Author(s):  
Gabriela Vlahopol
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Significant Phenomenon ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Tonal System ◽  
Musical Forms

Abstract The great stylistic epochs of the past mostly had syntaxes and specific forms, escaping in the context of the application of polyphonic syntax to the tonal system. The twentieth century, characterized by a continuous mobility and search in the field of the musical language, does not intend to create new musical forms but takes preexisting patterns, which adapt to the creative contexts specific to the composers. Thus, despite the blurring of some of the fundamental elements, other factors of configuration and construction were maintained and amplified, as well as the particular phenomenon, the most significant phenomenon being the development of the thematic principle, which will have its particular manifestations in the fugue form, the diversity of its interpretations bearing the mark of some new directions.

: British Public Administration

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hood
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Past ◽  
Scientific Rigour ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Phoenix

This chapter discusses three possible interpretations of the development of British Public Administration over the twentieth century as a way of assessing its contribution to political science. Those interpretations are respectively labelled ‘dodo’, ‘phoenix’, and ‘chameleon’. The ‘dodo’ interpretation is a pessimistic fin de siècle view of British Public Administration as in serious decline from early promise and former greatness. The ‘phoenix’ interpretation is a more optimistic perception of the subject as advancing in scientific rigour and conceptual sophistication over the century, leaving behind the outmoded styles of the past. A third view, the ‘chameleon’ interpretation, is a picture of lateral transformation, with the adoption of new intellectual colouring and markings to fit a new era.

Residential segregation in the American metropolis: concentration, dispersion and dominance

Urban History ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Zunz
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Central Cities ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
American Cities ◽  
Clustering Patterns

Measuring residential segregation is a challenging and crucial task. Many important questions in urban history can be understood fully only after correctly assessing the importance and significance of the clustering patterns of different groups of urbanites. However, the extent to which and the ways in which various social classes, races, and ethnic groups congregated in the expanding industrial metropolis of nineteenth-century America form the subject of heated debates among historians. With large black ghettos now existing in all major cities, experts and lay citizens alike agree that Americans live in a ‘separated society’. In the first half of the twentieth century, metropolitan areas took the form of ghettoized central cities with white suburbs. With the transfer of many urban functions to suburban units, and the shift of America from a nation of urbanites to a nation of suburbanites, a complex pattern of suburban segregation also developed. The universal concern about the magnitude of today's segregation makes the historical debate intriguing. Was it once different? Was there a time when cities were integrated? At some time in the past, many believe, American cities were better places in which to live—hence we should strive to recover our lost community.

Fount of Deep Culture: Legacies of theJames Stuart Archivein South African Historiography

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Benedict Carton
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
African History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Interpretation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Deep Culture ◽  
The University

The 2001 launch of the fifth volume of theJames Stuart Archivereinforces this publication's reputation as a mother lode of primary evidence. TheArchive'sexistence is largely due to the efforts of two editors, Colin De B. Webb and John Wright, who transformed a tangle of notes into lucid text. They deciphered the interviews that Natal colonist James Stuart conducted with a range of informants, many of them elderly isiZulu-speaking men. Transcribed by Stuart between the 1890s and 1920s, these discussions often explored in vivid detail the customs, lore, and lineages of southern Africa. Although references to theArchiveabound in revisionist histories of southern Africa, few scholars have assessed how testimonies recorded by Stuart have critically influenced such pioneering research. Fewer still have incorporated the compelling views of early twentieth-century cultural change that Stuart's informants bring to a post-apartheid understanding of South Africa's past.Well before the University of Natal Press published volume 5, the evidence presented in theArchivehad already led scholars of South African history into fertile, unmarked terrain. One example of groundbreaking data can be found in the statements of volume 4's master interpreter of Zulu power, Ndukwana kaMbengwana. His observations of the past anchor recent studies that debunk myths surrounding the early-nineteenth-century expansion of Shaka's kingdom. Ever timely, the endnotes in volume 5 discuss these reappraisals of historical interpretation and methodology. Editor John Wright elaborates in his preface: “By the time we picked up work on volume 5, we were starting to take note … that oral histories should be seen less as stories containing a more or less fixed ‘core’ of facts than as fluid narratives whose content could vary widely.”

scholarly journals GEORGY IVANOVICH CHELPANOV AND LABOR PSYCHOLOGY

2021 ◽  
pp. 162-183
Author(s):  
Н. Ю. Стоюхина
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Young People ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Applied Psychology ◽  
The Usa ◽  
German Origin ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Near Future ◽  
American Scientist

В статье анализируются результаты поездки Г.И. Челпанова в Америку в 1911 г., куда он направился во время строительства Психологического института при Московском университете для ознакомления с организацией психологических институтов и лабораторий, в которых работали виднейшие ученые Дж.М. Кеттелл, Р. Вудвортс, Э.Б. Титченер, Д.Р. Энджелл, Х.А. Карр, Ч.Х. Джадд, Д.Ф. Шепард, У.Б. Пиллсбери, С. Холл, Г. Мюнстерберг и др. Устройство и принципы работы руководимых ими научно-исследовательских подразделений оставили большое впечатление. По приезде в Москву в своих выступлениях он неоднократно возвращался к своим американским воспоминаниям. Начало ХХ в. характеризовалось зарождением прикладной психологии, а одним из ее направлений была психология труда. Американский ученый немецкого происхождения Г. Мюнстерберг - признанный в мире основатель прикладной психологии, за трудами которого внимательно следил Г.И. Челпанов. Именно ее развитие стала предметом обсуждения в его выступлениях в 1911 - 1912 гг. Главные вопросы, требовавшие незамедлительного ответа - области приложения прикладной психологии и кто будет этим заниматься в России. Именно Психологический институт, оснащенный самыми современными приборами, должен был готовить к будущим научным исследованиям тех молодых людей, которые в скором времени займутся прикладной психологией. Так и произошло - с 1912 г. заработал Психологический институт, где воплощались замыслы Г.И. Челпанова. В 1921 г., т.е. ровно 100 лет назад, уже в Советской России, он возвращается к теме прикладной психологии, имевшей конкретное имя - психология труда. Он наметил задачи, требовавшие незамедлительного решения, которые, как показала практика 1920-30-х гг., решались советскими учеными. The article addresses G. I. Chelpanov’s trip to the USA in 1911, where he went during the construction of the Psychological Institute at Moscow University to get acquainted with the organization of psychological institutes and laboratories, where the most prominent scientists J. M. Cattell, R. Woodworth, E. B. Titchener, J.R. Angell, H. A. Carr, C. H. Judd, J. F. Shepard, W. B. Pillsbury, S. Hall, G. Münsterberg and many others worked, the structure and principles of the research led by them left a great impression. Speaking upon his arrival in Moscow, he repeatedly returns to his American memories. The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by the emergence of applied psychology, and one of the areas was labor psychology. The American scientist of German origin G. Münsterberg is the internationally recognized founder of applied psychology, whose works G. I. Chelpanov knew and followed. It was its development that became the subject of discussion in his speeches in 1911 and 1912. The main questions that demanded an immediate answer were the areas of application of applied psychology and personalities who would implement this in Russia. It was the modern and equipped with the most modern devices Psychological Institute that was supposed to prepare for future scientific research those young people who would soon be engaged in applied psychology. And so, it happened - since 1912 the Psychological Institute was opened, where G. I. Chelpanov’s ideas were manifested. In 1921, already in Soviet Russia, he returned to the topic of applied psychology, which already had a specific name - labor psychology. He outlined the tasks that needed to be addressed in the near future, which, as the practice of the 1920s and 1930s showed, were solved by Soviet scientists.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document