Search Results (167)

This study explores how demystifying Earth Observation (EO) through co-creation pathways and local language can enhance flood resilience and environmental governance in African informal cities. Using case studies from Maiduguri and Hadejia, Nigeria, the research employed a transdisciplinary mixed-methods design combining rapid evidence assessment, surveys, participatory workshops (n = 50 stakeholders) integrating simplified Sentinel-1/2 demonstrations, indigenous knowledge mapping, and pre-/post-engagement surveys on EO familiarity. Non-expert participants were trained to interpret satellite data using local language, linking distant teleconnections with local flood experiences. The findings revealed significant gains in EO literacy and improvements in interpretive confidence, gender-inclusive participation, and policy engagement. Localizing the curriculum enabled participants to translate technical EO concepts into locally meaningful narratives, fostering cognitive empowerment and practical application in flood preparedness and advocacy. The study demonstrates that data democratization is not only a matter of open access but also of open understanding. It advances a conceptual model linking Demystification, Literacy, Empowerment, Co-Production and Resilience, positioning EO as a social technology that bridges scientific and indigenous knowledge systems. The findings contribute to debates on decolonizing environmental science and propose a potential participatory framework for integrating EO into community-based adaptation, legal accountability, and policy reform across Africa’s rapidly urbanizing landscapes. Full article

Despite widespread corporate endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), systematic evidence on how top management in emerging economies prioritizes and frames SDG-related issues over time remains limited. Existing studies are often based on manual or single-year analyses, restricting comparability, scalability, and longitudinal insight. This study examines how corporate managerial communication aligns with and emphasizes SDGs across sectors and over time in two major emerging economies, India and South Africa. Using an AI-driven natural language processing (NLP) pipeline, we analyse 2400 annual reports from 600 publicly listed companies covering the period 2020–2023. A fine-tuned SDG-BERT multi-label classification model is applied to extract and classify SDG-related content from top management communications, enabling sectoral, temporal, and cross-country comparison of SDG relevance. The results reveal a strong and persistent emphasis on SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) across both countries, alongside sector-specific variation and differing patterns of SDG diversity over time. South African firms exhibit greater variation in SDG emphasis across years, while Indian firms display more concentrated and stable SDG framing. Overall, the findings highlight systematic imbalances in SDG-related managerial communication and persistent underrepresentation of several social SDGs. The study contributes methodologically by demonstrating the value of validated AI-assisted longitudinal text analysis for large-scale SDG research and empirically by providing comparative insights into how corporate SDG narratives evolve in emerging market contexts. Full article

Sustainable computing is now a mainstream expectation of the profession, yet its treatment in higher education remains uneven, and often reflects assumptions of stable power, affordable connectivity, and frequent hardware refresh. This conceptual paper offers a critical synthesis of the misalignment between globally promoted sustainability competencies and the infrastructural realities of African higher education. We argue that when curricula designed for resource-abundant settings are adopted without adaptation in contexts shaped by energy volatility, high data costs, and complex device ecologies, a design–reality gap emerges: students may learn the language of sustainability but lack the practical competence to engineer resilient, resource-aware systems. Employing an explanatory synthesis of two evidence pools, i.e., global work on sustainable computing education and Africa-focused scholarship on infrastructure constraints, we propose the Context-Aware Sustainable Computing Education Framework. The framework integrates three dimensions of reform: pedagogy that shifts from awareness to context-aware action competence through constraint-led challenges, curriculum reform that embeds frugal computing and lifecycle stewardship as technical rigour within core modules, and an infrastructure-as-driver stance that treats the campus energy and device environment as a living laboratory for responsible trade-offs. We conclude with tiered implementation pathways, showing how departments can progress from minimum viable changes to institutional approaches. The synthesis positions African universities as credible contributors to global thinking on resilient computing under tightening resource constraints. Full article

This paper presents LinguoNER, a practical and extensible framework for bootstrapping Named Entity Recognition (NER) in extremely low-resource languages, demonstrated on Yambeta, a Bantu language spoken by a minority community in Cameroon. Due to scarce digital resources and the absence of annotated corpora, Yambeta has remained largely underrepresented in Natural Language Processing (NLP). LinguoNER addresses this gap by providing a methodologically transparent end-to-end workflow that integrates corpus acquisition, gazetteer-driven automatic annotation, tokenizer training, transformer fine-tuning, and multi-level evaluation in settings where large-scale manual annotation is infeasible. Using a Bible-derived corpus as a linguistically stable starting point, we release the first publicly available Yambeta NER dataset (≈25,000 tokens) annotated with the CoNLL BIO scheme and a restricted entity schema (PER/LOC/ORG). Because labels are generated via dictionary-based annotation, the corpus is best characterized as silver-standard; credibility is strengthened through recorded dictionaries, transparency logs, expert-in-the-loop validation on sampled subsets, and complementary qualitative error analysis. We additionally train a dedicated Yambeta WordPiece tokenizer that preserves tone markers and diacritics, and fine-tune a bert-base-cased transformer for token classification. On a held-out test split, LinguoNER achieves strong token-level performance (Precision = 0.989, Recall = 0.981, F1 = 0.985), substantially outperforming a dictionary-only gazetteer baseline ($\Delta$F1 ≈ 0.36). Per-entity-type evaluation further indicates improvements beyond surface-form matching, while remaining errors are linguistically motivated and primarily involve multi-word entity boundaries, agglutinative constructions, and tone-/diacritic-sensitive tokenization. We emphasize that results are restricted to a Bible domain and a limited label space, and should be interpreted as proof-of-concept evidence rather than claims of broad out-of-domain generalization. Overall, LinguoNER provides a reproducible blueprint for bootstrapping NER resources in underrepresented languages and supports future work on broader corpora sources (e.g., news, OPUS, JW300), additional African languages (e.g., Yoruba, Igbo, Bassa), and the iterative creation of expert-refined datasets and gold-standard subsets. Full article

Gendered media framing continues to restrict women’s political representation in Southern Africa, where news narratives often emphasise emotion and personality over policy and competence. This systematic review analysed empirical and grey literature (2000–2025) on the portrayal of women politicians in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, and Namibia. Following PRISMA 2020 standards, 1384 records were identified from academic databases and regional repositories, with 73 records meeting the inclusion criteria. The studies were thematically analysed using feminist media theory. The review uncovers enduring stereotypes—such as motherhood, moral virtue, and emotionality—while leadership competence remains marginalised. Coverage frequently reinforces the “political glass cliff,” portraying women as suitable only during crises. Nonetheless, some evidence of resistance journalism and feminist digital counter-narratives is emerging, driven by NGOs like Gender Links and Media Monitoring Africa. Despite methodological diversity, most studies emphasise qualitative textual analysis and highlight limited audience or production research. Major limitations include reliance on English-language and secondary data, which restrict regional generalisability. Overall, the findings underscore that symbolic exclusion persists across Southern African media, emphasising the need for gender-sensitive newsroom frameworks and transformative reporting practices. This review received no external funding and is not registered in PROSPERO. Full article

African American (AA) women often experience earlier onset and more severe menopause symptoms, especially vasomotor symptoms (VMSs) like hot flashes, compared to other groups. However, limited research has examined the effectiveness and acceptability of menopause treatments in this population. This scoping review synthesized evidence on pharmacological (e.g., hormone replacement therapy [HRT], SSRIs, venlafaxine, nitroglycerin) and holistic (e.g., dietary changes, physical activity [PA], supplementation) approaches for managing menopause symptoms in AA women. Using Joanna Briggs Institute and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a scoping review was conducted, guided by the PCC framework. Four databases (CINAHL, PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus) were searched for English-language studies (2010–2025) involving AA women aged 40–65. Eligible studies included RCTs and observational designs with ≥10% AA participants. Data were charted and synthesized descriptively. Fourteen U.S.-based studies (11–53% AA representation) were included. Pharmacological treatments—especially HRT and SSRIs—were effective for VMSs and mood symptoms. Holistic approaches showed mixed outcomes; PA and magnesium offered modest benefit, while phytoestrogens sometimes worsened memory. Race-specific results were rarely reported. Effective pharmacological options exist, but evidence tailored to AA women is lacking. Future research must ensure greater AA representation and culturally responsive approaches to menopause care. Full article

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) are neurodegenerative conditions that cause gradual deterioration of cognition, memory and language in the elderly. AD has been declared as a health priority by the World Health Organization (WHO) considering its severity and unavailability of a permanent cure. Although the global AD/ADRD population is made up of many ethno-racial groups, the majority of AD studies have focused on the Caucasian population. The few AD studies conducted on minority populations in the US have found that significant AD health disparities exist, demonstrating that African Americans and Hispanics have a significantly higher prevalence of AD and related dementias, with their risk often approaching twice that of White individuals. For the past few years, epigenomic research has played an important role in understanding health disparities among diverse racial and ethnic groups. Unlike genetic studies, which focus on the DNA sequence that one is born with, epigenomics investigates how changes in gene expression due to extrinsic environmental exposures may impact disease pathophysiology. Recent epigenomic studies appear to be promising in not only understanding disease pathology but also in developing diagnostic and therapeutic tools for AD with population specificity. However, there is only a handful of studies and review articles available addressing the epigenomic applications in irradicating racial disparities in AD/ADRD. Therefore, the aim of this review is to discuss the recent findings of epigenomic studies in AD and related dementias, their contribution in irradicating racioethnic disparities and insights into the future direction of their application in precision medicine. Full article

The integration experiences and vulnerabilities of migrants in host states are a critical area of study. This qualitative research, grounded in a human rights and social justice framework, investigates the systemic injustices and integration challenges faced by Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa. Through in-depth interviews with 16 participants and six key informants, the study employs thematic analysis to uncover the socio-cultural, economic, and political barriers that impede successful integration. The findings reveal pervasive issues such as prejudice, discrimination, xenophobia, and language barriers, which exacerbate the migrants’ vulnerabilities and make it difficult to support their families. They, at times, fail to buy food and pay school fees for their children. Despite these challenges, the resilience and creativity of Zimbabwean migrants are evident. The study’s unique contribution lies in its widening of the genealogy of theories of migration by incorporating African-centred migration perspectives, which are grounded in social justice perspectives. This critiques the Global North-dominated narratives that have historically sidelined the lived experiences of migrants from the Global South. The study offers a comprehensive examination of the interplay between systemic barriers and migrant resilience, offering new insights into how migration involves and affects families. This research calls for the development and implementation of rights-based integration frameworks to address systemic issues and enhance the well-being of migrants so that they can better support their families and kinsmen. Full article

Background: Evidence on HAIs in Africa is fairly common. Objectives: The main objective was to identify the surveillance tools used for healthcare–associated infections (HAIs) in countries in the WHO African Region. Secondary objectives focused on the organization of surveillance, the pathogens involved, and the frequency of multidrug–resistant species. Inclusion and exclusion criteria: Observational or interventional studies on healthcare–associated infections in humans, published between January 2011 and December 2024, in French or English, were included. However, the following publications were not included: animal studies, healthcare–associated infections not related to healthcare, literature reviews, studies outside the period or geographical area, and studies in languages other than French or English. Sources of information and search date: The databases consulted were PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane, African Index Medicus, Google Scholar, and AJOL. The search was conducted between January and March 2025. Risk of bias assessment: The risk of bias was assessed using a specific grid (eleven criteria), scored from one (low) to three (high). The studies were classified into three levels of methodological quality. The results of the bias assessment showed that the publications were excellent (strong and moderate) with a cumulative rate of 99.9%. Methods of synthesizing results: Data were extracted using a standardized grid and synthesized narratively. No meta–analysis was performed. Number of studies and characteristics: 95 studies were included, mostly cross–sectional studies (82.1%), cohorts (10.4%), and a few case reports. Most were from West Africa (60.0%), particularly Nigeria (16.8%) and South Africa (14.7%). Main results: • Most common pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus (53.7%), Escherichia coli (43.2%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (32.6%). • Resistance profile: ESBL (27.4%), MRSA (21.1%), multidrug resistance (13.7%). • Sources of HAIs: mainly exogenous (83.2%). • Laboratory methods: phenotypic (70.5%), genotypic or genomic rare (3.1%). • Scope of studies: local (96.8%), national (3.2%). Limitations of evidence: Risk of bias due to underreporting of HAIs, methodological heterogeneity, predominance of cross–sectional studies, low use of molecular methods, lack of modeling, and uneven geographical coverage. Overall interpretation and implications: surveillance of HAIs in Africa remains fragmented and poorly standardized. There is a need to strengthen national systems, integrate molecular methods, train professionals, and promote interventional research. The WHO GLASS program can serve as a framework for harmonizing surveillance. Full article

“Ubuntu/Botho/Hunhu” is a philosophical concept commonly used in Sub-Saharan Africa, arising out of the Bantu languages of its peoples. It is familiar in South Africa and Zimbabwe, for example, and through it, reference is made both to the way of being human and to the morality of the actions performed by people. Understood from the philosophical perspective, Ubuntu as an ethic is dignity-based. Naturally, Ubuntu is not the only metaphysical and moral worldview present in the diversity of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa, for given the presence of Catholic Christian believers, “Catholic Social Teaching” (CST) is also encountered. In countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe, Catholic parliamentarians are involved in State apparatuses, as members of provincial and municipal legislatures, and judicial officers may be of the Catholic tradition. Given the holistic nature of the human, it is a significant challenge for the believer to abandon their axiological systems when entering the public sphere. Like the African Ubuntu/Hunhu tradition, CST is dignity-based, although the arguments from within each for the attainment of dignity are divergent. Whilst acknowledging the inherent dignity of the person in both traditions, this study takes a different approach by highlighting contrasts. In divergences, human dignity and relationships in society will be explored, as the study extends novel moral actions for the good of the Ubuntu-inspired society. Full article

The research aims to derive the positive and negative values and strange habits included in Ibn Battuta’s journey called “Tuhfat An-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ibal-Amsar wa-‘Aja’ib Al-Asfar” by Shams al-Din bin Abdullah al-Lawati, the Moroccan al-Tanji, known as Ibn Battuta (d. 1377 AD), presented and investigated by Ali al-Muntasir al-Katani (D.T), which was included in Ibn Battuta’s trip, to the peoples of the countries he visited on the African and Asian continents. A total of 440 respondents participated in the study: 195 teachers in the supplementary track and 245 fourth-year regular track students at an Arab College of Education from all disciplines: early childhood, Arabic language, science, mathematics and computer science, English language, and special education. The respondents were asked to select an enrichment text or a story of one or more pages from Ibn Battuta’s travels, with the aim of eliciting the positive and negative values and strange customs of the peoples and countries Ibn Battuta visited in Africa and Asia. The study results indicated that Ibn Battuta’s travelogue, “Tuhfat An-Nuzzar fi Ghara’ibal-Amsar wa-‘Aja’ib Al-Asfar,” is considered an important literary reference, rich with texts and stories from which we can deduce the values and customs of the people of the countries Ibn Battuta visited in Africa and Asia. Teachers can use this information for discussion and constructive dialogue with their students in schools, in various educational subjects such as social studies, religion, literature, Arabic language, history, and geography. Most of the study participants support the idea of integrating Ibn Battuta’s travelogue into various lessons. The study recommends the importance of integrating and expanding it to include other subjects in schools, colleges, and universities. This integration should be systematically built around various activities that achieve “meaningful learning,” ensure active student participation, and enhance value for the learner and society. In conclusion, I recommend conducting detailed studies and research on the educational values derived from travel literature. Full article

The study examines the complexities of the Aláròyé newspaper’s digital transformation. It seeks to understand how the organisation’s matrix, which includes circulation, readers, and advertising revenue, has been impacted by the shift to digital platforms while preserving its historical print business. Anchored on the uses and gratifications as well as technological determinism theory, the study demonstrates how digital technology influences the operational structures of media organisations. The study adopts a qualitative research design through interviews (with the newspaper’s publisher) and netnography with the newspaper’s social media community on Facebook. Data obtained are qualitatively analysed using the thematic analysis method. Findings from the study show that Aláròyé has made significant strides in embracing technology to enhance its operations, marking a notable shift from traditional practices to more modern, digital-driven strategies. The reception from the audience has been positive, with a growing number of readers engaging with the content across various digital platforms. The shift to digital media has allowed Aláròyé to expand its reach and foster a stronger connection with its audience, which is essential for the long-term success of the indigenous language newspaper. The study enhances the existing scholarship on indigenous language media by elucidating adaptive strategies and audience dynamics within African digital journalism. This establishes a framework for comprehending how indigenous language news outlets can sustain relevance in the digital era by preserving their cultural identity and social mission. Full article

Background: Individuals with heart failure (HF) are at increased risk of magnesium deficiency. Magnesium supplements are widely available and being used without clear evidence of efficacy in HF. Methods: We emulated a target trial to assess the association between magnesium supplements and adverse outcomes in U.S. veterans with newly diagnosed HF. Eligible patients were outpatients who received ambulatory care in the Veterans Health Administration between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2020. Veterans with a hospitalization within 30 days prior to the eligible date, previous magnesium supplement or replacement use, or end-stage renal disease were ineligible for the trial. Initial self-reported magnesium supplement use (measured at eligible date) was identified in medical records using natural language processing and then checked repeatedly to confirm continuous use. The outcome was all-cause hospitalization or death. Patients were followed for up to five years from the eligible date and were censored if they changed from the assigned treatment strategy or initiated prescribed magnesium replacement. We applied inverse probability treatment weighting and Cox’s regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs), with sensitivity analyses in patients surviving ≥ 6 months and those with continuous documentation of magnesium supplement use. Results: We enrolled 9900 magnesium supplement users and 9900 matched non-users. In the weighted cohort (mean age 72.6 years; 12.6% African American; 3.4% women; median follow-up 0.7 years), users had significantly better survival in both primary and sensitivity analyses (HR in primary analysis: 0.81 [0.77–0.86], p < 0.0001; HRs in sensitivity analyses: 0.91 [0.85–0.97], p = 0.0025 and 0.77 [0.72–0.82], p < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions: magnesium supplement use was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality or hospitalization among veterans with HF. Full article

Strongyloidiasis is an underappreciated helminth infection that belongs to a group of neglected tropical diseases. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the pooled prevalence of Strongyloides stercoralis infection in humans in 16 West African countries. We searched African Journals Online, Embase, Horizon, Google Scholar, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify articles assessing S. stercoralis prevalence data. The search was restricted to articles published between 1 January 1975 and 31 December 2024 without language restriction. We followed the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 21,250 articles were identified, 336 of which met the inclusion criteria. The most frequently used diagnostic tools were Kato-Katz (35.1%) and formol-ether coprological methods (23.4%). Strongyloidiasis was reported in 15 of the 16 West African countries; Mali was the only country where it was absent. The S. stercoralis regional prevalence was 4.4%, ranging from 0.2% in Burkina Faso to 18.9% in The Gambia. S. stercoralis infection prevalence decreased from 14.0% (1975–1984) to 4.1% (2015–2024). S. stercoralis prevalence showed strong heterogeneity with the highest prevalence mainly observed in countries in the Gulf of Guinea. Most of the employed diagnostic techniques were inappropriate; the reported S. stercoralis prevalence is, thus, likely an underestimation of the true situation. Our observations call for more sensitive S. stercoralis diagnostic tools and strategies for strongyloidiasis control that are tailored to the different social-ecological settings of West Africa. Full article

Background: Parent education is a key component of family-centred care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). It supports positive parent-infant interactions, reduces parental stress and anxiety, and contributes to shorter hospital stays. Objectives: This paper reports on the adaptation of a South African parenting education intervention for parents of premature infants in the NICU: the NeuroSense PremmieEd programme. The study aimed to demonstrate the programme’s content validity, feasibility, and acceptability for preterm parent–infant dyads in public hospital NICUs, using a hybrid focus group discussion (FGD) method. The programme was based on an existing intervention and informed by literature on the components of parenting educational programmes and empirical data on parental expectations. Methods: A qualitative, iterative refinement process was undertaken using hybrid-format FGDs. A conceptual FGD was held during the design phase, followed by two consensus FGDs after pilot testing (reported separately). Stakeholders included end-users (mothers), clinicians, an instructional designer, a neurodevelopmental care expert, and programme facilitators. Results: The first FGD reviewed draft version 0.1 of the programme, confirming content relevance and clarity, while recommending adjustments, such as module integration, cultural and language alignment, and visual aids to support comprehension. Version 0.2 was then ready for pilot testing (reported elsewhere). The second and third FGDs led to refinements addressing emotional sensitivity in terminology, improved layout and readability, and the addition of home care guidance. Stakeholders highlighted the potential use of low-cost digital formats to enhance accessibility and standardisation. These revisions informed the final version 0.3. Conclusions: The hybrid FGD approach enabled input from diverse and geographically dispersed stakeholders. The NeuroSense PremmieEd programme was found to be feasible and acceptable by both mothers and healthcare professionals, supporting its suitability for broader implementation in resource-constrained settings. Full article